Robert Jr Laforce, MD PhD
RABLAB Position & Year: Visiting Scholar (2011)
RABLAB Activities: Worked on multivariate models (parallel ICA) of FDG-PET and PiB-PET in three conditions with underlying Alzheimer’s pathology and was also involved at the MAC seeing patients.
Current: Associate Professor, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada
Publications: Laforce et al., 2014 NeuroImage Clinical
Richard Tsai, MD
RABLAB Position & Year: Assistant Professor of Neurology Faculty (2015-2018)
RABLAB Activities: Worked on 18F-Flortaucipir imaging in frontotemporal dementia syndromes and saw patients for the EOAD project, as well as collaborating at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Current: Associate Medical Director at Denali Therapeutics, South San Francisco, CA
Publications: Tsai et al., 2019 Alzheimer's Research & Therapy
Alexandre Bejanin, PhD
RABLAB Position & Year: PostDoctoral Fellow (2015-2016)
RABLAB Activities: Worked on tau-PET imaging in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and was involved in a project about longitudinal volume and metabolic changes in frontotemporal dementia.
Current: Research Fellow, Unidad de Memoria de Sant Pau – Servicio de Neurología, Barcelona, Spain
Publications: Bejanin et al., 2017 Brain; Bejanin et al., 2020 Neurology
Rik Ossenkoppele
RABLAB Position & Year: Post-doctoral Researcher (2014-2016)
RABLAB Activities: I worked on tau PET in Alzheimer's Disease, network spread of tau pathology, brain atrophy in atypical variants of AD and we characterized the behavioral variant of AD.
Current: Senior researcher at Amsterdam University Medical Center (the Netherlands) and Lund University (Sweden), and luckily still collaborating with Gil!
Publications: Ossenkoppele et al., 2019 NIMG:Clinical, Ossenkoppele et al., 2016 Brain, Ossenkoppele et al., 2015 Brain, Ossenkoppele et al., 2015 HBM, Ossenkoppele et al., 2015 Neurobiol Aging.
Brendan Cohn-Sheehy
RABLAB Position & Year: Staff Research Associate
RABLAB Activities: Under Gil's mentorship, I conducted individual and collaborative research which sought to improve diagnostic biomarkers (e.g. amyloid PET versus autopsy correlations, structural MRI, FDG PET) that capture early-onset and atypical Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementias, and chronic brain injury. I coordinated these research endeavors with the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, the UC Berkeley lab of William Jagust, M.D., and Dr. Rabinovici's national and international collaborators.
Current: MD/PhD student at UC Davis
Gautam Tammewar
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Associate (2013-2016)
RABLAB Activities: I started working under Gil as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in 2013 and joined the lab full-time after graduating in 2015. As an undergraduate, I completed an honors thesis entitled "Longitudinal Analysis of Atrophy in 4 Variants of Alzheimer's Disease". While at the MAC, I managed the processing of PET scans for various projects and helped inaugurate the MAC PET Rounds.
Current: Medical school at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio
Ashley Mensing
RABLAB Position & Year: Project Manager (2015-2017)
RABLAB Activities: I managed the IDEAS study and provided administrative support to the lab.
Current: Research assistant at the Taub Institute at Columbia University and soon to be MA student at Columbia beginning in the fall.
Adrienne Visani
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Associate (2016-2018)
RABLAB Activities: I joined the lab-full time after graduating from USC in 2016. During my time at the MAC, I processed and QC-ed PET and MRI data for patients seen at the MAC, helped develop the MAC PET Didactic series, and conducted analysis for various projects related to tau and longitudinal atrophy, asymmetry of imaging biomarkers in EOAD, and 18F-Flortaucipir uptake in FTD syndromes and CTE.
Current: Medical school at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, working in Dr. Tammie Benzinger's lab at the Knight ADRC, St. Louis MO
Viktoriya Bourakova
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Assistant (2017-2019)
RABLAB Activities: Viktoriya Bourakova is a Research Assistant worked with PET imaging to study hypometabolism, amyloid, and tau in neurodegenerative disease. She processed and analyzed multisite PET data across healthy control and atypical patient populations.
Current: Clinical Research Coordinator in clinical trials at the Neuroimmunology clinic at Stanford University.
Kiran Chaudhary
RABLAB Position & Year: Lab Manager (2017-2019)
RABLAB Activities: Kiran was a project manager responsible for coordination of two national, multi-site studies, IDEAS and LEADS.
Current: Scientific Officer at Centre for Brain Research, Indian Institute if Science
Krystal Karunungan
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Coordinator (?-2019)
RABLAB Activities: -
Current: Currently in Med school at UCLA
Orit Lesman-Segev
RABLAB Position & Year: Post-doc (2017-2019)
RABLAB Activities: Orit 1) analyzed and interpreted scans and clinical information for various UCSF studies as well as national multisite studies including Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS study), and Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS), and 2) constructed independent research that focused on the diagnostic utility of multimodal brain imaging including PET (amyloid-PET, tau-PET, FDG-PET) and structural MRI for earlier, more accurate, and pathophysiology driven diagnostics for neurodegenerative conditions (including Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and frontotemporal lobar degeneration).
Current: Neuroradiology fellow at Sheba medical center, at Tel HaShomer, Israel
Publications: Lesman-Segev et al., 2019 NIMG:Clinical; Lesman-Segev et al., 2021 Annals of Neurology
Andreas Lazaris
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Coordinator (2011-2016)
RABLAB Activities: Andreas worked as a member of the Rab Lab for three years as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, where he completed his honors thesis entitled "Subtyping PPA: Towards a Quantitative Approach to Classification of Primary Progressive Aphasia Using [18F] FDG-PET and Domain-Specific Cognitive Performance". Andreas continued his work with the lab after graduation for two years as the PET Research Coordinator at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.
After many great years with the Rab Lab, Andreas completed his MD and MSc in Primary Care- Population Medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School. At Brown, he completed a graduate thesis on the subjective experiences of older adults aging in institutional settings. He is now a resident physician at the Mount Sinai Downtown Residency in Urban Family Medicine, completing his training at the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Institute of Family Health in Downtown Manhattan, NYC.
Current: Resident physician at the Mount Sinai Downtown Residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Institute of Family Health in Downtown Manhattan, NYC.
Karine Provost
RABLAB Position & Year: Nuclear Medicine Physician - Visiting Scholar (2019-2020)
RABLAB Activities: Dr. Provost is a nuclear medicine physician from Montreal, Canada with expertise on brain positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. She was actively involved in interpretation of research brain PET studies for the LEADS study with various radiotracers. Her current research focuses on visual assessment of 18F-Flortaucipir and correlation with other biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease.
Current: Nuclear medicine physician, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Université de Montréal
Publications: Provost et al., 2021 JCBFM; Provost et al., 2021 EJNMMI
Taylor Mellinger
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Coordinator (2018-2020)
RABLAB Activities: In my time at the MAC, I was a coordinator for our Longitudinal Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS), Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), and our PET collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley Labs. I enjoyed learning about Alzheimer’s Disease and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy from both working on research in the RabLab and spending time with our wonderful patients and families.
Current: Medical school at Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine
William Mantyh
RABLAB Position & Year: Clinical Fellow (2018-2020)
RABLAB Activities: co-site Investigator for LEADS and ADNI. Clinical Fellow.
Current: Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
Publications: Mantyh et al. JAMA Neurology 2020 ; Mantyh et al. Alz&Dem DADM 2023
Lauren Edwards
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Coordinator (2017-2018); Research Assistant (2018-2020)
RABLAB Activities: Lauren joined the lab as a research coordinator for the Tau Imaging with AV-1451 and Early Onset and Atypical Alzheimer’s Disease studies. In 2018, she transitioned to a research assistant position where she processed and analyzed PET imaging data obtained from MAC participants. Lauren also administered cognitive tests and acquired MRIs for the Longitudinal Early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS), and conducted research on sex differences in Alzheimer's disease PET biomarkers.
Current: PhD student at the SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, working with Dr. Katherine Bangen.
Publications: Edwards et al., 2021 Neurobiology of Aging
Julie Pham
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Coordinator (2016 - 2020)
RABLAB Activities: Julie was involved in the recruitment and implementation of the Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (EOAD) study, Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS), and projects within the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC). Her research interests focused on relationships between emotion and cognition as well as factors that influence decision-making in dementia care.
Current: Southern Methodist University's PhD Program in Clinical Psychology, working with Dr. Holly Bowen.
Amelia Strom
RABLAB Position & Year: Research associate (2018-2021)
RABLAB Activities: I processed PET data for various MAC projects and assisted in analyses for studies on plasma tau biomarkers, longitudinal amyloid PET, and more. I also conducted independent research on correlates of glucose metabolism PET and created the RabLab Concepts Handbook.
Current: PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program
Publications: Strom et al., 2021 Brain
Leonard Iaccarino, PhD
RABLAB Position & Year: Post-Doc and Assistant Professional Researcher (2015 - 2022)
RABLAB Activities: My work focused on the use multi-modal PET and MRI imaging to study the relationships between pathology and neurodegeneration in the Alzheimer's Disease spectrum. Other than that, I am webmaster, event planner, well known for bringing good luck to the Warriors, Meme generator, defending traditional Italian cuisine and much more.
Current: Director, Clinical Development at Avid Radiopharmaceuticals
Publications: Iaccarino et al. Neuroimage Clinical 2017; Iaccarino et al. Cerebral Cortex 2021; Iaccarino et al. JAMA Neurology 2021; Iaccarino et al. Neuroimage 2022
Jalayne Arias, JD
RABLAB Position & Year: Assistant Professor of Neurology (2016-2021)
RABLAB Activities: Jalayne’s research used empirical legal research methods and qualitative research to explore the legal, ethical, and policy challenges associated with diagnosing and identifying risk for Alzheimer’s disease in adults under the age of 65. Her K01 sought to develop insurance and employment anti-discrimination protections based on preclinical biomarker status.
Current: Associate Professor at Georgia State School of Public Health
Publications: Arias, et al., 2021, Genet Med.; Mergenthaler, et al., 2021, AJOB Neurosci.; Arias & Flicker, 2020, J Law Med Ethics
Michael Hess
RABLAB Position & Year: Neuroimaging Data Analyst (2021-2022)
RABLAB Activities: Analyzed PET scans
Jeremy Tanner, MD
RABLAB Position & Year: Behavioral Neurology Training Program (2019-2022)
RABLAB Activities: Jeremy studied relationships between cognitive deficits and PET biomarkers (amyloid, tau, FDG) in early and late onset AD.
Current: Assistant Professor at UT Health San Antonio
Publications: Tanner, et al. 2022, Brain; Tanner & Rabinovici, JNM 2021
Ashley DuBord
RABLAB Position & Year: Research Assistant (2021-2022)
RABLAB Activities: Ashley assisted with processing and analysis of PET and MRI.
Maura Malpetti, PhD
RABLAB Position & Year: Visiting Scholar (2021-2022)
RABLAB Activities: Maura worked on multimodal imaging (PET and MRI), and longitudinal predictive modelling approaches to clarify the complementary prognostic values of these tools in Alzheimer's Disease.
Current: Race Against Dementia & Alzheimer's Research UK Fellow at The University of Cambridge
Publications: Malpetti et al. JNM 2022, Malpetti & La Joie, Nat Aging 2023
Ganna Blazhenets, PhD
RABLAB Position & Year: Visiting Scholar (2022-2023)
RABLAB Activities: Dr. Blazhenets visited the lab from University of Freiburg (Germany) in frames of her Walter-Benjamin Fellowship of the German Research Foundation. She is a postdoctoral fellow working with semi-automatic techniques for quantitative PET analysis applied to various neurodegenerative disorders. During 9 months at the RabLab, she focused on cross-sectional and longitudinal PET imaging characteristics in patients with 3R/4R tauopathies and explore their differential associations with cognitive testing and symptom onset..
Publications: Blazhenets et al. JNM 2023
Golnaz Yadollahikhales, MD
RABLAB Position & Year: Clinical Fellow (2022-2023)
RABLAB Activities: Golnaz was a Clincal Fellow at the lab. She focused on FDG-PET imaging in patients with genetic FTD. She was also interested in face networks in patients with svPPA.
Publications: TBD
Nidhi Mundada
RABLAB Position & Year: Neuroimaging Data Analyst (2020-2023)
RABLAB Activities: Nidhi assisted with processing and analysis of amyloid and tau PET scans and supports ongoing studies at the MAC that require PET processing. She was key to keep the lab running post-pandemic.
Current: PhD student at UPenn
Publications: Mundada et al. Alz Res Ther 2023, Cho, Mundada et al. Alz&Dem 2023
Marianne Chapleau, PhD
RABLAB Position & Year: Post-doc (2021-2023)
RABLAB Activities: Marianne worked on several projects combining FDG-PET imaging, pathological data, and clinical data to better understand the atypical variants of Alzheimer’s disease.
Current: Medical Science Liaison at Life Molecular Imaging
Publications: Chapleau et al. JNM 2022, Chapleau, La Joie et al. Lancet Neurol 2024
Hanna Cho, MD
RABLAB Position & Year: Visiting scholar (2021-2023)
RABLAB Activities: Hanna analyzed cross-sectional amyloid and pet scans from patients with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease.
Publications: Cho, Mundada et al. Alz&Dem 2023
