People

People

Duygu Tosun-Turgut, PhD

Principal Investigator

A Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF and the Founding Director of Medical Imaging Informatics and Artificial Intelligence at the San Francisco VA. She holds advanced degrees in engineering and mathematics from The Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA. Her research focuses on neuroimaging, AI, and their applications in neurodegenerative diseases.

Mariam Ali

Mariam Ali

Staff Research Associate II

BA, Cognitive Science (computational) and minor in Arabic, UC Davis

Marta Milà Alomà

Postdoctoral Researcher

PhD in Biomedicine (Neuroscience), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

Marta is currently working on elucidating the performance of blood biomarkers in detecting AD pathology and predicting disease progression to optimize their use in clinical trials. Her special interest is studying sex differences in AD biomarkers and the impact of risk factors on neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. She has active collaborations with several groups as well as contributing to an international non-profit organization, “The Women’s Brain Project.” 

Mark Choe

Staff Research Associate III

BS in Machine Learning and Neural Computation, UC San Diego

Mark helps acquire, manage, process, and analyze imaging data for projects concerning Alzheimer's disease, adult trauma, and lower back pain. Beyond data, he generates billing reports, handles MRI logistics, and develops team protocols.

Daniel Cuneo

Programmer/Analyst III

Daniel Cuneo is a Programmer/Analyst III at the Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE), where he supports data infrastructure and software development for the Medical Imaging Informatics & AI Lab at UCSF. His work focuses on backend systems, imaging data workflows, and technical support for neuroimaging research. Daniel collaborates closely with clinical and research teams to facilitate the processing and analysis of complex imaging datasets.

Ryan Ellis

Ryan Ellis

Machine Learning Engineer, EDO, Inc

Ryan worked as a Staff Research Associate on neural networks for neuroimaging and developed image processing pipelines.

Derek Flenniken

Derek Flenniken

Programmer Analyst 4

Derek Flenniken is a seasoned Database and Web Programmer with over 25 years of experience supporting biomedical research and imaging informatics. He currently serves as IT Director for the Veterans Affairs Advanced Imaging Research Center (VAARC) and works as a Programmer/Analyst IV with NCIRE – The Northern California Institute for Research and Education. Derek specializes in imaging data infrastructure, DICOM storage solutions, and web-based platforms supporting research and clinical collaboration. He holds a B.A.

Ellie

Isabella Hausle

Biostatistician (Clinical Research)

MS in Biostatistics, University of Michigan

Ellie’s current work includes research into biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease in ADNI, as well as statistical education and support for other members of the lab.

Anna Hwang

Anna Hwang

User Research Operations Specialist, Course Hero

Anna worked as a Research Data Analyst, managing clinical research projects, performing neuropsychiatric assessments, and processing/analyzing large participant datasets.

Dhaval Kadia

Dhaval Kadia

Machine Learning Engineer, VoxelCloud

Dhaval worked as a Staff Research Associate on neuroimaging projects to research and develop new machine learning methods for image processing and standardized analysis of neurodegenerative diseases utilizing imaging data on a large clinical trial study.

Adam Lang

Adam Lang

Software Engineer, Codesmith

Adam worked as a Staff Research Associate II on image processing and AI approach to study neurodegenerative diseases.

Brendan Mitchell

PhD candidate in BioEngineering, UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco

Brendan's research is focused on better understanding the progression of Alzheimer's disease pathology, aiming to inform and guide clinical decision-making. By integrating multi-omics and imaging data from the ADNI, he seeks to elucidate changes in clinically relevant biomarkers to yield new insights into the transition from healthy aging to the progression of the disease.

Alison

Alison Myoraku

Staff Research Associate III

MS in Biomedical Imaging, UC San Francisco

Alison’s work spans multiple conditions including depression, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and traumatic brain injury. She has worked on various steps of image processing, data harmonization, and the utilization of longitudinal imaging data (PET and MRI) to model regional changes in volume, amyloid deposition, and other characteristics throughout the disease course. Currently, her work focuses on understanding the effect of modifiable risk factors like comorbidities on AD plasma and imaging biomarkers.
 

Eliana Phillips

Programmer/Analyst II

MS in Scientific Computing and Applied Mathematics, UC Santa Cruz

Eliana is developing pipelines for neuroimaging data processing and analysis with the aim of studying biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. 

Pallavi Rane

PhD in Biomedical Engineering, WPI, Worcester, Massachusetts

Pallavi’s background is in pre-clinical and clinical research using MRI in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Currently, her work includes looking at the effects of APOE genotype and sex on the progression of imaging and clinical biomarkers and studying correlations between imaging biomarkers and clinical measures in Alzheimer's disease. 

Stephanie Rossi

Imaging Core Supervisor

BA in Psychology and Biology with a specialization in Neurobiology, Boston University

Tamar Schaap

Biostatistician

Tamar is a research-oriented statistician with a background in data analytics and machine learning. Her previous work included creating machine learning models to predict psychological and biological outcomes using data from wearables. In our lab, Tamar worked on applying a new harmonization method to data coming from MR Imaging in order to adjust for variations that may result from scanner differences. She is currently in a Data Science PhD program at UCSD.

Clara Sorensen

PhD candidate in BioEngineering, UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco

Clara’s research is focused on using artificial intelligence for the discovery and validation of multi-modal biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. Some of her projects use partial least squares regression to understand the extent to which fluid biomarkers (plasma and CSF) are driven by biological changes captured by multimodal imaging.

Serena Tang

PhD candidate in BioEngineering, UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco

Serena is interested in sleep as it affects brain glymphatic clearance mechanisms and potential correlations with Alzheimer's disease. She is currently working on perivascular space segmentation in combination with analysis of cerebral blood flow as one way to quantify these relationships.

Jiaxiuxiu Zhang

Jiaxiuxiu Zhang, MS

MS in Biomedical Imaging, UC San Francisco

Xiuxiu has used fMRI BOLD contrast to decode pain perception and anticipation using imaging biomarkers from patients with chronic low back pain. She is currently working on a project using fMRI data to analyze fluid dynamics of CSF clearance in the brain.

Pamela Zobel-Thropp

PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UC Los Angeles

Pam manages Dr Tosun-Turgut's team who works on large, international scientific initiatives and collaborative projects focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease and Aging. She ensures that these integrative projects are moving forward and helps with manuscript and grant preparation.