Lab Members

Suzee Lee, MD

Principal Investigator

Dr. Suzee Lee is a behavioral neurologist, Professor of Neurology at the UCSF Weill Institute of Neurosciences Memory and Aging Center and the Director of the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab. She also serves as Director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center Visiting Scholars Program, Co-leader of the Imaging Cores for both the UCSF Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Images, and Emotions Project and the Diagnose CTE-II Project, and as a mentor at the Global Brain Health Institute.

Her research focuses on how genetic variants that cause neurodegenerative diseases, such as frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, confer lifelong influences from neurodevelopment in childhood through neurodegeneration in adulthood. Dr. Lee’s lab leverages advanced neuroimaging techniques, including structural and functional MRI, to detect neural circuit abnormalities prior to symptom onset in genetically at-risk individuals. By integrating neuroimaging, genetics, biofluid markers, clinical assessments, and computational tools, her lab aims to bridge the gap between preclinical markers and clinical application, advancing early detection and precision medicine strategies for neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Lee earned her BA in English and American Literature from Harvard University and her MD from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine. She completed her internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, neurology residency at Mount Sinai Hospital, and a fellowship in behavioral neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. She has published over 50 scientific papers and authored book chapters on topics including atypical neurodegenerative syndromes, the intersection of art and dementia, and a nonfiction narrative of a rare neurodegenerative disease. In addition to her research, Dr. Lee cares for patients in her clinic at UCSF. Through her work in research and patient care, she is dedicated to advancing our understanding of neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration and developing innovative strategies for early detection.

Outside the lab, she relishes in addictive novels and playing tennis and is a classically trained pianist and singer.

Taru Flagan, PhD

Research Scientist
Taru received a bachelor of science degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego and completed a PhD in psychology in the Self-Regulation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016. She joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab in 2017 to support neuroimaging methods for understanding the underlying biology of genetic variants of frontotemporal dementia.
Jolina Lombardi, PhD

Post Doctoral Scholar
Jolina received her master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. For her PhD degree in clinical neuropsychology, she joined the German FTLD consortium at the Department of Neurology in Ulm, Germany to examine cognitive features and neuroimaging biomarkers in frontotemporal dementia with a focus on primary progressive aphasia. She joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab in 2021 to get a deeper understanding of the brain’s connectivity and its systematic degeneration in genetic frontotemporal dementia.
Youjin Jung, PhD

Post Doctoral Scholar
Youjin received her bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Home Economics Education and a master’s degree in brain and cognitive engineering from Korea University in South Korea. Youjin then completed her PhD in Psychology at Wayne State University in 2023, where her research focused on the relationship between plasma NfL and multimodal neuroimaging markers in older adults with Alzheimer's disease. Youjin joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab in February 2024 to investigate potential multimodal neuroimaging biomarkers for early detection and monitoring of frontotemporal dementia.
Rowan Heffelfinger, BA

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator
Rowan graduated from Middlebury College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology in May 2024. At Middlebury, as a research assistant to Dr. Jamie McCallum, she conducted research on unionization in healthcare settings. In 2023, Rowan worked as a clinical research assistant at the Centre for Cardiovascular Innovation where she researched the use of the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) device for treating severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. She joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab in 2024 as an assistant clinical research coordinator.

Lab Alumni

Postdoctoral Fellows

Liwen Zhang

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2019-2023
Liwen received her PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Groningen in 2016. She then worked as a research fellow at the National University of Singapore and Duke-NUS Medical School jointly, where she worked on Alzheimer’s disease using neuroimaging methods. Liwen joined the lab in 2019 to study the underlying brain mechanisms of frontotemporal dementia, and worked on a study that characterized connectivity abnormalities in asymptomatic MAPT variant carriers. After UCSF, she went to the Institute for Medical Imaging Technology Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine to establish a neuroimaging lab in neurodegenerative disease.
Suvi Häkkinen

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2022
Suvi received her PhD from the Department of Psychology and Logopedics at the University of Helsinki in 2018, where she completed her dissertation on the functional organization of human auditory cortex during active auditory tasks. She joined the Memory and Aging Center in 2018 to deepen her understanding of various neuroimaging methods and their relevance to clinical research and worked on longitudinal neuroimaging analyses. After UCSF, she went on to UC Berkeley to pursue a second postdoctoral fellowship.
Ethan Geier

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015-2017
Ethan graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in molecular and cell biology and earned a PhD in 2013 from the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Dr. Kathleen M. Giacomini. His dissertation work focused on characterizing how membrane transporter proteins influence drug penetration across the blood-brain barrier. After graduate school, Ethan co-founded Apricity Therapeutics with Dr. Giacomini to create safer, more effective therapies for pediatric diseases using technology he helped develop during his dissertation work. Ethan joined the Memory and Aging Center in 2015 to study how genetic variation contributes to the development of neurodegenerative diseases.

Research Assistants

Andrea Gorham Vargas

Research Assistant, 2022-2024
Andrea graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor of arts degree in Biology & Society in May 2022. At Cornell, she worked in the Liu Lab to study developmental processes using the bone morphogenetic protein pathway in C. elegans. Later, she worked with Dr. Hooman Kamel, at Weill Cornell Medicine, on the relationship between stroke and pre-existing atrial fibrillation after surgery. She joined Dr. Lee’s lab in 2022, where she coordinated Dr. Lee’s ongoing study on children from families with dementia. In 2024, she went on to pursue a master’s degree in public health at Columbia University.
Stephanie Chu

Research Assistant, 2017-2020
Stephanie graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience. She worked as a research assistant in the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology at the Semel Institute at UCLA, where she assisted Dr. Aimee Hunter and Dr. Andrew Leuchter with research on depression and related psychiatric disorders using EEG data. Stephanie joined the lab in 2017, where she assisted Dr. Suzee Lee with neuroimaging studies examining the role of genetic risk factors and mutations in frontotemporal dementia. She left UCSF to pursue a PhD in neuroscience at UCLA.
Ana Sias

Research Assistant, 2014-2017
Ana graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in Dr. Richard Ivry's Cognition and Action Lab studying motor inhibition during response preparation. Ana joined the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in 2014 and assisted Dr. Suzee Lee in neuroimaging projects which included a studies of C9orf72 expansion carriers and those with GRN variants. Her favorite brain region is the hypothalamus. She left UCSF to pursue a PhD in neuroscience at UCLA.
Alainna Brennan Brown

Research Assistant, 2014-2016
Alainna completed her bachelor’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis in neuroscience and biomedical physics and worked as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Kurt Thoroughman's Neural Computation and Motor Behavior Lab. Her favorite brain region is primary motor cortex. She assisted Dr. Suzee Lee with neuroimaging studies of frontotemporal dementia, particularly voxel-based morphometry and resting-state fMRI analyses in the c9orf72 hexanucleotide expansion and progranulin variants. After leaving the lab, she went to the University of Washington to study medicine.
Michael Neylan

Research Assistant, 2013-2014
Michael graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2011 with a degree in psychology. He began working at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in 2012 investigating frontotemporal dementia with Dr. Bruce Miller and Dr. Adam Boxer. In 2013, Michael began working with Dr. Lee researching people with genetic variants of frontotemporal dementia.
Anna Khazenzon

Research Assistant, 2012-2014
Anna graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012 with a degree in cognitive neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she worked in Dr. Matthew Walker’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab investigating the role of reward in memory using fMRI and in Dr. Damian O. Elias’ Animal Communication and Behavior Lab studying courtship plasticity in the male jumping spider. From 2012 to 2014, Anna worked with Dr. Suzee Lee on the first study to characterize altered functional network connectivity in C9orf72 expansion carriers with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. After UCSF, she earned her PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford University.

Interns and Visiting Scholars

Peter Mu-N Liu

Visiting Scholar, 2017-2018
Peter obtained his MD from the National Defense Medical Center in Taipei, Taiwan, and is a psychiatrist at the Taipei Veteran General Hospital. Dr. Liu's research focuses on the field of geriatric psychiatry, such as geriatric depression and cognitive aging. He joined the Lee Lab in 2017 as a visiting scholar to study neuroimaging in neurodegenerative disease.
Janet La

Visiting Scholar, 2017
Janet graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014 with a bachelor's degree in molecular and cell biology and attended medical school at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. At the Memory and Aging Center, Janet studied new genetic mutations implicated in dementia and their role in cerebral atrophy using structural neuroimaging techniques.
Silvia Russo

Visiting Scholar, 2016
Silvia obtained her MD from the San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, was a Neurology Resident at the University of Milan, Italy when she joined the Lee Lab in August 2016 as a visiting scholar. She learned to apply voxel-based morphometry and resting-state fMRI to understand the influence of genetics on the early stage of frontotemporal dementia. Sylvia’s favorite part of the brain is the prefrontal cortex. She works as a behavioral neurologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center clinic.
Heidi Foo

Visiting Scholar, 2016
Heidi was a visiting research scholar while she was at the National Neuroscience Institute in Singapore, where she used neuroimaging techniques to investigate the neurobiological processes underlying Parkinson's disease and dementia. At the Memory and Aging Center, Heidi learned seed-based resting state functional neuroimaging techniques using SPM and observed clinical research evaluations.
Anna Vidovszky

Research Intern, 2015-2017
Anna volunteered in the Lee lab while she was an undergraduate student at the University of San Francisco, pursuing a degree in psychology. She also worked as a research assistant in Dr. Wendy Mendes' Emotion, Health, and Psychophysiology Lab. Anna’s favorite brain region is the amygdala.
Eena Kosik

Research Intern, 2015
Eena volunteered in the Lee lab while she was an undergraduate student at University of California, Berkeley. She also worked as a research assistant in Dr. Robert Levenson's Psychophysiology Lab. She is extremely fascinated by the mind, particularly scientific approaches to consciousness.
Adeline Ng

Visiting Scholar, 2014-2016
Adeline joined the lab when she was a Senior Consultant in Neurology and Deputy Director of Clinical Research at the National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore. During her time in the lab, she wrote a publication on that characterized homozygous R406W MAPT variant carrier.