Dr. Lea Tenenholz Grinberg is a neuropathologist specializing in brain aging and associated disorders, most notably, Alzheimer's and neurological basis of sleep disturbances in neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, she is a Full Professor and a John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation Endowed Professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, part of the Executive Board of the Global Brain Health Institute and a member of the Medical Scientific Advisory Group for the Alzheimer Association. She is also a Professor of Pathology at the University of Sao Paulo.
Jonathan graduated from UC Berkeley(2020) after completing his degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. He started his research journey in 2018 as a research assistant at the Grinberg Lab focusing on the utilization of machine learning/artificial intelligent in neuroimaging/digital pathology in dementia mentoring by Dr. Maryana Allegro and Dr. Lea T. Grinberg.
Alex is a biomedical scientist focused on neurological and psychiatric disease pathogenesis and therapeutic development. He received his BA and PhD degrees from UC Berkeley with additional research training at UC San Francisco's Memory and Aging Center under the joint mentorship of Dr. Lea Grinberg and Dr. Daniela Kaufer. Alex's training included specialization in neuropathology, epidemiology, comparative neurology, molecular genetics, and cell biology.
Dr. Luke Fischer (he/his) is a neurologist-neuroscientist with an interest in Lewy body disease. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Michigan State University with degrees in Philosophy and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and he remained there to complete his PhD degree in Neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Caryl E. Sortwell as part of a dual-MD/PhD program. As a trainee in the NINDS Morris K.
Tia graduated from UC Berkeley(2020) after completing a dual degree in Integrative Biology and Molecular Environmental Biology. She started her research journey in 2018 as a research assistant at the Grinberg Lab practicing various wet lab techniques and focusing on the Locus coeruleus' role as a biomarker for AD. She continued as a Staff Research Associate at the Grinberg Lab in 2021 working with computer modeling techniques, postmortem histology, and MRI neuroimages with a focus on the brainstem.
Wenda joined the Grinberg lab in March 2015 to support the group's efforts in researching brain aging and associated disorders. Apart from assisting the management of data bank, Wenda also helps in wet lab, processing brain tissue. She intends to continue working in the field of medical research, particularly in the specialty of brain disease.
I graduated from UC Davis with B.S Degree in Biotechnology. Prior joining the Grinberg Lab at the Memory and Aging Center, I worked at the Brain Tumor Biorepository Tissue Core at the Department of Neurosurgery UCSF, where I assisted in clinical trials and research studies for CNS tumors using histology and immunohistochemistry techniques. I am looking forward to exploring the histotechnology field more and applying these techniques for Alzheimer’s diseases studies.
Ian joined the Grinberg Lab in the Fall of 2018 as an undergraduate research assistant due to his interest in neurodegeneration, following years of research experience in behavioral and molecular neuroscience. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 2021 with a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and Data Science, he continued his work at the lab as a full-time staff research associate.
Felipe is a Bioinformatician with a Computer Science background. He received his Ph.D. degree at Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2019. In his Ph.D. thesis, he studied host-pathogen interaction in important zoonotic fish-pathogenic bacteria. He had experience as a teacher assistant in Programming Languages and Software Engineering and he worked in the National Reference Laboratory of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture using different types of omics technologies, such as transcriptomics and proteomics.
Igor Prufer Q.C. Araujo obtained his MD degree at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He completed his neurology residency at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas, being the chief resident in his final year of training. His current research interests include blood based biomarker studies utilizing neuropathological correlation studies and development of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease encompassing underrepresented populations.
Shima is a Neuroscientist with a background in cell and molecular biology, having completed her PhD at McGill University, Canada in 2022. Her doctoral research focused on the brain's neural circuits related to pain perception. Intrigued by the brain's complex wiring, she explored the development of these circuits and their role in neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Liara Rizzi received her PhD and MSc in Medicine: Medical Sciences in Brazil. After her PhD, she started as a Postdoctoral fellow at Unicamp, SP, Brazil. She joined the Grinberg Lab as a Postdoctoral employee in the year 2023. Since the beginning of her academic career, she has been working on biomarkers related to neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer's disease. Her academic research projects mainly focus on the detection of altered proteins in biofluids such as cerebrospinal fluid, plasma and serum.
