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Jenna joined the CAN Lab within the Memory and Aging Center in August 2024. She graduated from Boston College in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience and a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. While in college, she interned at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, working with Dr. Rush on the development of a psychosocial resilience program for ALS dyads.
Christina Veziris is an assistant clinical research coordinator in the UCSF Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) Lab. She graduated from the University of San Francisco in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and minors in neuroscience and health studies. She volunteered in the CAN lab for a year and then worked in the Relationships, Emotions, and Health Lab at San Francisco State University for three years using the Facial Action Coding System to code facial emotions.
Dr. Palser joined the Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) Lab in December 2018. Eleanor works with the UCSF Dyslexia Center, studying social and emotional processing in neurodevelopmental conditions, such as dyslexia and autism. To do this, she combines self-report, physiological and neuroimaging methods. Previously, she received a PhD degree in cognitive neuroscience from University College London.
Ashlin earned his bachelor of science degree in psychology at the University of Oregon in 2016. As an undergraduate, he assisted in several labs that study the neurobiological basis of behavior. After graduating, Ashlin worked as a lab manager at the University of Massachusetts Boston for Dr. Keith Welker and Dr. Rhiana Wegner. Currently, Ashlin is a data analyst at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center for Dr. Virginia Sturm and Dr. David Perry.
Nathaniel comes from Marin County and graduated from Stanford in 2018 with a degree in psychology. At Stanford he worked as a research assistant in Dr. James Gross’ lab studying the regulation of emotions in groups as well as the emotional dynamics between group members. Nathaniel also studied the effects of depression and anxiety on brain structures. At the Memory and Aging Center, he is a research coordinator in the Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) Laboratory, led by Dr. Virginia Sturm.
Dr. Perry graduated from medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where he also researched obsessive-compulsive features in dementia. He is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Memory and Aging Center and participates in the evaluation and treatment of patients in the MAC clinic.
His current area of research interest is the impact of neurodegenerative illness on reward processing.
Virginia Sturm, PhD, is the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation Endowed Professor at UCSF. She is a Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and she is the director of the Clinical Affective Neuroscience (CAN) Laboratory that is located in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and affiliated with the UCSF Center for Psychophysiology and Behavior (CPB).
