Stanford ADRC Clinical Core
The Clinical Core of the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) recruits and follows patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and mild cognitive impairment; and healthy older volunteers without neurological disease or cognitive impairment. Information that we collect supports innovative research on understanding fundamental causes of neurodegenerative disease and enabling early identification, effective treatment, and prevention.
We believe that research is most efficient when each volunteer is able to contribute multiple types of information. We refer to this strategy as “deep phenotyping.” Our research data come from neurological and neuropsychological assessments, brain imaging (PET scans and MRI scans), and molecular and genetic markers derived from blood, spinal fluid, skin fibroblasts, and stool. All of these are ultimately tied to crucial diagnostic information obtained by brain autopsy through the ADRC Neuropathology Core. Anonymous research data and some specimens and tissues are shared with researchers at Stanford and other universities. Like other ADRCs, we provide Uniform Data Set measures to the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (Seattle, WA) and biological specimens to the National Centralized Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (Indianapolis, IN). We maintain strict confidentiality. The Clinical Core is led by Dr. Victor Henderson and by Dr. Kathleen Poston (Lewy body disease), Dr. Sharon Sha (clinical trials), Dr. Maya Yutsis (neuropsychology), and Dr. Kyan Younes (neurology).
Victor W. Henderson, MD, MS
Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Clinical Core Leader
Dr. Henderson directs the Stanford ADRC and co-directs the Stanford master degree program in epidemiology and clinical research. His research emphasizes risk factors for cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, and therapeutic strategies to maintain and improve cognitive abilities affected by cognitive aging or dementia. Dr. Henderson obtained his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and master's degree in epidemiology from the University of Washington School of Public Health. He trained at Duke University (internal medicine), Washington University (neurology), and Boston University (behavioral neurology). He has been a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visiting professor at the University of Melbourne (Australia), and is Honorary Skou Professor at the University of Aarhus (Denmark). He has served in leadership roles concerned with late-life cognitive disorders (chair of the Geriatric Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology) and midlife cognitive health (president of the North American Menopause Society; general secretary of the International Menopause Society). He serves on editorial boards and scientific advisory boards, and he has authored more than 300 scientific articles and chapters.
Kathleen Poston, MD, MS
Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor of Neurology and the Neurological Sciences and Professor, by courtesy, of Neurosurgery
Associate Core Leader, Lewy Body Disease
Dr. Poston received her Bachelor's of Science in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, her Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering and her MD at Vanderbilt University. She completed her Neurology residency training at UCSF, where she was Chief Resident. She also completed a fellowship in clinical Movement Disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Fahn at Columbia University and post-doctoral training in Functional Neuroimaging with Dr. David Eidelberg at the Feinstein Institute.
Dr. Poston's clinical expertise include Parkinson's Disease, atypical Parkinsonian disorders, Essential Tremor, Huntington's Disease, and tics. She also has interest in the treatment of dystonia and blepharospasm with botulinum toxin.
Dr. Poston's research focuses on the development of novel neuroimaging biomarkers to improve diagnostic accuracy and monitor the efficacy of investigational treatments for Parkinson's Disease and other movement disorders. She is also the Principle Investigator for clinical trials in movement disorders, such as Gene Therapy in Parkinson's disease.
Sharon Sha, MD, MS
Clinical Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Associate Core Leader, Clinical Trials
Dr. Sha received her Bachelor’s degrees in Cognitive Science and Molecular Cell Biology emphasizing in Neurobiology from UC Berkeley. She went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Physiology and MD from Georgetown University. She trained in Neurology at UCLA and Stanford University and completed a clinical and research fellowship in behavioral neurology at UCSF where she focused on identifying biomarkers for genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia and caring for patients with movement disorders and cognitive impairment.
Dr. Sha’s clinical expertise include Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Lewy Body disease, corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, Huntington’s disease, ataxia, multiple system atrophy, and other dementias. She is currently the director of the Huntington’s disease and Ataxia clinic.
Dr. Sha’s non-clinical time is spent conducting clinical trials as the Director of the Memory Disorders Clinical Trials Program in order to identify disease modifying treatments for dementia. She has a special interest in genetic forms of dementia and the cognitive impairment in parkinsonian-related disorders. She is also director of the Stanford Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry Clinical Fellowship.
Maya V. Yutsis, PhD, ABPP-CN
Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) of Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Associate Core Leader, Neuropsychology
Dr. Yutsis received her bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Palo Alto University, Pacific Graduate School of Psychology. She completed a clinical internship in neuropsychology at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and a post-doctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Prior to coming to Stanford, she was the lead neuropsychologist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System for the Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Program and for the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center Telehealth Neuropsychology clinic. Dr. Yutsis's research interests are in cognitive aging and dementia and traumatic brain injury.
Eshan Adeli, PhD
Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Public Mental Health and Populations Sciences) and, by courtesy, of Computer Science and of Biomedical Data Science
Ehsan is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He is affiliated with the Computational Neuroscience Lab (CNS Lab) is Psychiatry and the Stanford Vision and Learning (SVL) Lab, Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) in the Department of Computer Science. His research interest lies at the intersection of computational neuroscience and computer vision applied to healthcare applications.
J. Wesson Ashford, MD, PhD
Clinical Professor (Affiliated), VAPAHCS
Dr. Ashford is the Director of the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, California site, which he formed in 2007 at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and a Clinical Professor (affiliated) at Stanford University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Ashford received his undergraduate degree from University of California-Berkeley and his medical degree, psychiatry training, and PhD in neuroscience from the University of California-Los Angeles, and has served on the faculty of UCLA, Southern Illinois University, University of California-Davis, and the University of Kentucky, where he was Vice-Chair for research from 1992 – 2003. Dr. Ashford has published more than 170 peer reviewed articles which address a wide range of topics, with more than 100 addressing Alzheimer’s disease, particularly issues of screening for cognitive impairment and dementia, clinical and research evaluation, and treatment (including the first double-blind study of a cholinesterase inhibitor in 1981, a treatment that is now standard for Alzheimer’s disease).
John Barry, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences (by courtesy)
Dr. Barry, director of the Neuropsychiatry and Psychotherapy Clinics, has a special interest in neuropsychiatric problems of people with dementia. He directs the UCNS-accredited Stanford Neuropsychiatry Fellowship Program and is consultant to the Stanford Center on Memory Disorders and the Stanford Movement Disorders Center.
Ami Bhatt, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and of Genetics
Humans are now understood to live in complex symbiosis with microbes. While the majority of interactions between the host and microbiota are considered to be symbiotic, alterations of the microbiota are associated with various disease states. It is hypothesized that perhaps the patients most susceptible to adverse outcomes of microbiota dysbiosis are patients whose immune systems are challenged. The goal of the Bhatt lab is to understand the interplay between the microbial environment in immunocompromised patients, especially those with hematological malignancies (leukemia and lymphoma). The laboratory focuses on (1) the use of next generation sequencing to define the microbiome and host immunologic features in patients with hematological diseases and (2) developing custom computational tools for the identification of novel human commensals and pathogens in these immunosuppressed patient populations, and (3) using statistical and functional biological methods to understand the interplay between the human microbiome and the development of immunological variability.
Steven Z. Chao MD, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor (Affiliated) of Neurology and Neurological Science
Dr. Steven Chao received his combined MD/PhD degree from Chicago Medical School/Rosalind Franklin University. Following his neurology residency at Stanford University Hospital, he continued with behavior neurology fellowship training at UCSF Memory and Aging Center, where he started his research in dementia diagnosis and treatment and its related fields with special interest in ethnicity differences in dementia. In the past decade, he has been actively participating in Stanford neurology resident and medical school student education, providing clinical care, and conducting multiple clinical trials at Palo Alto VA. His current research interest is in early treatment/prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia, cognitive treatment in traumatic brain injury and non-pharmaceutical treatment for headache.
Matthew Fitzgerald, PhD
Audiologist, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS)
Dr. Fitzgerald received his undergraduate degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from The Wichita State University. He then traveled to Vanderbilt University to complete a M.S. in Audiology and Hearing Sciences, before completing a clinical fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI with Dr. Gary Jacobson. He subsequently completed a Ph.D. at Northwestern University in Communication Disorders with Dr. Beverly Wright exploring patterns of perceptual learning in individuals with normal hearing. Upon completion of his doctorate, he moved to the New York University School of Medicine for a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Otolaryngology. There, he worked with Dr. Mario Svirsky to identify recipients of cochlear implants who have not yet fully adapted to their device, and to provide tools which audiologists could use to modify the map to help these patients. He later joined the faculty at NYU, and at Montclair State University. In 2015 he became the Chief of Audiology at Stanford, where he oversees the Audiology departments of both Stanford Hospital and the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital.
VanKee Lin, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Public Mental Health & Population Sciences)
Dr. Lin’s career has been devoted to understanding the neural mechanisms involved in brain aging and brain plasticity, with a special focus on early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Her research approach integrates principles and findings from cognitive theory, clinical neuroscience, and computational neuroscience. This approach is complemented by my extensive research experience involving multi-modality neuroimaging (PET, sMRI, dMRI, and fMRI), psychophysiology, neuropsychology, and quantitative research methods. She currently leads an interdisciplinary clinical neuroscience lab, covering a wide spectrum of research from Phases 0-2 in three areas: (a) brain aging, focusing on the links between brain pathophysiology and clinical symptoms, in a wide range of populations, from older adults with superior cognitive capacity to preclinical and prodromal AD, with an overarching aim to gain insights into the broad mechanisms of aging, both in typical and atypical populations and to identify early biomarkers for AD; (b) novel non- pharmacological interventions that promote successful cognitive aging as well as alleviate or eliminate adverse effects of AD pathophysiology; and (c) advanced computational models (e.g., explainable AI) for understanding and intervening on brain aging.
Heather Moss, MD, PhD
Professor of Ophthalmology and of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Dr. Heather Moss is Professor in the Stanford Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurology & Neurological Sciences. She is also Associate Dean in the Stanford School of Medicine Office of Academic Affairs, Vice Chair of Clinical Research and Director of the Neuro-ophthalmology Fellowship in the Stanford Department of Ophthalmology. She directs an innovative clinical-research program in biomarker discovery at the Spencer Center for Vision Research at Stanford and provides expert neuro-ophthalmic clinical care at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford. Dr. Moss pursued undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering at the University of Guelph, followed by doctoral studies in medical engineering at Harvard and MIT, seeking to improve human health through application of engineering principles. Working with patients inspired her to become a physician; after earning her medical degree at Harvard, she completed residency training in Neurology and fellowship training in Neuro-ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania. She spent six years on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago, serving as the Director of Neuro-ophthalmology and starting a neuro-ophthalmology fellowship training program, before joining the Stanford faculty in 2016.Her clinical expertise includes diagnosis and treatment of optic nerve diseases, eye movement disorders, and neurological pathology affecting visual pathways. She is a national leader in application of telemedicine to improve access to neuro-ophthalmic care. Her research lab is developing novel diagnostic approaches to neurological and neuro-ophthalmic diseases through application of innovative electrophysiology, imaging, and mathematical modeling.
Jessica Ng, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Dr. Ng provides comprehensive care for people with movement disorders. She diagnoses and treats a wide range of movement disorders, including ataxia, atypical parkinsonism, dystonia, essential tremor, Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. She specializes in assessing patients for minimally invasive treatments, including botulinum toxin therapy, deep brain stimulation (DBS), and MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS). Her research interests include assessing treatment and diagnostic tools for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. She has presented at international and national meetings, including the International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Epilepsy Society. She is also a passionate clinician educator who has given lectures to medical students, physician assistant students, residents, and community physicians.
Allyson C. Rosen, PhD, ABPP-CN
Clinical Associate Professor (Affiliated) of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Neuropsychologist
Dr. Rosen is Director of Dementia Education at the Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the Palo Alto VAMC. She completed college at Brown University, a clinical psychology Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, clinical neuropsychology internship at the Long Island Jewish Hospital in New York, clinical neuropsychology fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin and research fellowships at National Institute on Aging and Stanford. For the past decade Dr. Rosen provided dementia education in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association and other community organizations. Dr. Rosen’s funded research has focused on applying cognitive neuroscience of aging to improve clinical practice in older adults by using cognitive measures, brain imaging, and noninvasive brain stimulation. Studies include using fMRI as an outcome measure for cognitive training, adapting transcranial magnetic stimulation to brain atrophy using fMRI, and using structural MRI to avoid postoperative cognitive decline and improve outcome from carotid vascular procedures
Ryan Gerald Taylor, MD, FRCPC
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Dr. Taylor is a fellowship-trained neurologist and assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Memory Disorders Division. He provides patient care at the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders.
His areas of expertise include diagnosing and treating illnesses that impair thinking, memory, behavior, and speech. Dr. Taylor’s clinical focus includes Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia, posterior cortical atrophy, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, autoimmune encephalitis and other rapidly progressive dementias. He works with patients and families to provide diagnostic clarity and individualized treatment plans.
Dr. Taylor’s academic and research interests combine clinical and scientific understandings of dementia with a philosophical inquiry into the structure of conscious experience. His original clinical research includes diverse topics, such as advances in diagnosing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and the clinical characterization of adult-onset hereditary dementias. Dr. Taylor has published work instrumental in identifying the potential role of fentanyl in a syndrome of sudden onset amnesia that emerged during the opioid crisis.
Joseph Winer, PhD
Instructor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Joe Winer completed his PhD in Psychology at UC Berkeley working with Matthew Walker and William Jagust. During his PhD, Joe combined objective and subjective sleep assessment with PET imaging to investigate connections between sleep disruption and Alzheimer's disease in the context of healthy aging. In his REC Fellowship at the Stanford ADRC, Joe plans to explore how tracking sleep and other factors in everyday life can provide information about brain health and cognitive trajectories in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Kyan Younes, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Dr. Younes is a behavioral neurologist with expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia, Lewy body dementia, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and related cognitive and behavioral impairments. One aspect of his research focuses on degeneration that affects the right anterior temporal lobe of the brain. This disorder affects person-specific knowledge and the ability to process emotions. His research encompasses multimodal brain imaging (magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography) and machine learning to improve the detection of neurodegenerative diseases. He has also participated in clinical trials of new drug therapies. Before Dr. Younes was recruited to Stanford University, he trained at Damascus University (medicine), Case Western Reserve University (epilepsy fellowship), the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston (neurology residency), and the University of California San Francisco (cognitive and behavioral neurology fellowship).
Cecilia Covenas, MD
Behavioral Neurology Fellow
· Cecilia Covenas, MD, received her medical degree from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru in 2014. She completed her residency in Family Medicine at the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program in California, a UCLA-affiliated program, in 2024 and received her board certification from the American Board of Family Medicine in the same year. She completed her Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Stanford in June 2025. She is currently doing her clinical fellowship in behavioral neurology at Stanford. Cecilia’s passion lies in the intersection between geriatric and memory disorders. She is actively involved in seeing ADRC participants and engaged in clinical meetings and other functions of the ADRC.
Nicole Caceres, BA
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Nicole Caceres graduated from Notre Dame de Namur University in 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. She is currently earning her Master of Science in Psychology with a concentration in forensic psychology from Palo Alto University. Nicole previously assisted children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental disorders, and emotional/behavioral disorders. In addition to working with children, she also volunteered as a sexual assault counselor and advocate at Rape Trauma Services.
Sofi Camille De Torres, MS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Sofia received her Master's of Science in Medical Health Sciences at Touro University, California 2024 with a B.S in Health Science from California State University, Long Beach. Her background spans emergency medicine, clinical research and community health outreach. Sofia is passionate about integrating public health perspective into clinical research to better address health disparities and improve patient outcomes. She aims to develop and implement public health programs that reach high-risk and underserved populations, bridging the gap between clinical science and community wellness.
Larissa Gomez, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Before joining us at the ADRC and LB-SPARK at Stanford, Larissa received her B.S. in Anthropology from University of California, Davis in 2023. During her time at UC Davis, she was a part of the Pre-Med American Medical Student Association board and was also an intern at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center under Dr. Carbajal for Intestinal Metaplasia research. She also volunteered 2 summers in Cusco, Peru and Riobamba, Ecuador where she partnered up with local physicians and assisted medically underserved indigenous communities. Larissa also worked as a home health aide for U.S. veterans with Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc. After working several years with patients with neurodegenerative diseases, she felt it was time to contribute to research to advance science and help people with neurodegenerative diseases. Larissa hopes to attend medical school and continue her passion in medicine to further help underserved communities.
Daisy Ma, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Daisy earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine, in 2024. Prior to her role at the ADRC, she served as a student research assistant in the Sleep and Cognition (SoC) lab, where she investigated the relationship between sleep patterns and spatial memory using EEG and virtual reality technologies. At the ADRC, she is eager to contribute to research on neurodegenerative diseases, aiming to increase the representation of individuals of all countries in Alzheimer’s disease research. Daisy plans to pursue a doctoral degree in neuropsychology, with the goal of advancing rehabilitative interventions that promote independence and improve the quality of life for individuals with cognitive impairments.
Laura MacKenzie, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate (LB-Spark)
Laura graduated from Brown University with a bachelor degrees in Health and Human Biology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. As a part of her senior thesis, she combined these interests to study the disproportionate rates of COVID-19 among Providence's Latine communities, and the role of community health organizations in addressing these disparities. After graduating, she worked for DocMatter, a start-up medical collaboration platform where she focused on neurology, dermatology, and oncology. More recently, she joined the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, where she worked with clinicians, researchers, and peers to build an online research community and to decrease barriers to data access in the neurodegenerative disease space. This year, Laura is excited to directly contribute to this research through her work with the ADRC and LB-SPARK.
T’Lesa Meadowcroft, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
T’Lesa Meadowcroft earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in neuroscience from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. She worked as a research assistant in psychology and, after graduation in 2010, as a neuropsychometrist at the University of Utah Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Imaging and Research. In 2015, she became a Certified Specialist in Psychometry and moved to Stanford Health Care as a clinical psychometrist, before joining us at the ADRC.
Nicolas Medina Penaranda, BS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Nicolas received his Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience, with a minor in Global Health, from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2023. Before joining the ADRC, he worked as an EMT and volunteered in settings of youth education and global health. At the ADRC, he is excited to work with the Clinical Core and Neuropathology Core to advance toward a more comprehensive understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.
Veronica Ramirez, BS
Scientific Research Project Manager
Veronica earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of New Orleans. She is currently earning her Master of Science in Neuroscience from Columbia University. Prior to joining Stanford ADRC, she worked as a neuropsychometrist and research assistant specializing in forensic neuropsychology. Her main area of interest includes statistical methodologies in neurodegenerative disease research.
Jenny Wang, MS
Clinical Research Coordinator Associate
Jenny received her Master of Science in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and Biology from Brown University in 2025. Prior to joining the ADRC, she worked as a Research Assistant in the Fallon Lab at Brown, where she investigated the role of the MuSK-BMP signaling pathway in adult hippocampal neurogenesis and its implications in neurodegenerative diseases using mouse models. At the ADRC, Jenny is excited to contribute to research focused on Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative conditions by working closely with patients to deepen our understanding of these complex disorders.
Christina Wyss Coray, RN
Clinical Nurse Coordinator
Christina Wyss-Coray is a Registered Nurse (RN) with over 20 years of expertise in memory disorders. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Public Health Nursing (PHN) from Holy Names University in Oakland. In 2009, she began her journey at Stanford University’s neurology division as a Research Nurse and Nurse Coordinator for the Stanford Center for Memory Disorders. Christina was an instrumental part of the team that established the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) in 2015. She took a year and a half off and is now back with the ADRC. Welcome back, Christina!
Prior to her current position, she spent over a decade working as a clinical nurse at the UCSF Memory ang Aging Center, where she gained extensive experience in managing memory disorders and actively participated in research projects. Her work involved enrolling participants with various neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, Huntington’s disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
Christina strives for improving medical care and supportive care to patients and families struggling with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other dementias. She is passionate about streamlining workflows, facilitating efficient communication, and supporting team members in every way possible.