Mormino Lab Team
Elizabeth Mormino, PhD, Principal Investigator
Dr. Beth Mormino completed a PhD in Neuroscience at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Dr. William Jagust, where she performed some of the initial studies applying Amyloid PET with the tracer PIB to clinically normal older individuals. This initial work provided evidence that the pathophysiological processes of Alzheimer’s disease begin years before clinical symptoms and are associated with subtle changes to brain regions critical for memory. During her postdoctoral fellowship with Drs. Reisa Sperling and Keith Johnson at Massachusetts General Hospital she used multimodal imaging techniques to understand longitudinal cognitive changes among individuals classified as preclinical AD. In 2017, Dr. Mormino joined the faculty at Stanford University in the department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. Her research program focuses on combining imaging and genetics to predict cognitive trajectories over time, and the integration of novel PET scans to better understand human aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Faculty
Alexandra N. Trelle, PhD
Instructor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Ali Trelle received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge, where she used functional MRI to characterize age-related changes in memory encoding and retrieval processes. In 2017, Ali joined Stanford University to work with Drs Beth Mormino and Anthony Wagner as lead of the Stanford Aging and Memory Study, a longitudinal multimodal biomarker study of human aging. As an Instructor in the Mormino Lab, Ali's research uses genetic, biofluid, and imaging markers of Alzheimer's disease to characterize the impact of early AD pathological changes on memory function in aging. Her research is supported by a K99 Pathway to Independence award from the National Institute on Aging.
Kyan Younes, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Neurology and Neurological Sciences
Dr. Kyan Younes is a behavioral and cognitive neurologist. He cares for people living with memory, language, executive, visuospatial, behavioral, or psychiatric symptoms. He completed an epilepsy research fellowship at Case Western Reserve University, a neurology residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and a behavioral neurology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco. His recent research projects focused on characterizing patients with right anterior temporal degeneration and on understanding the role of the glymphatic system in neurodegenerative illnesses. His broad focus involves implementing various neuroimaging approaches to achieve early and accurate diagnosis of patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
Christina Young, PhD
Instructor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Christina Young received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University in 2018 after completing her clinical internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specialized in Neuropsychology. Her research throughout her graduate training and initial post-doctoral position in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford focused on using neuroimaging, primarily fMRI, to better understand mood and anxiety disorders. She then joined the Mormino Lab in January 2020 as a postdoctoral fellow and pivoted her research to investigating cognitive decline and development of neuropsychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative diseases through multimodal imaging approaches.
Joe Winer, PhD
Instructor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Joe Winer completed his PhD in Psychology at UC Berkeley, where he combined objective and subjective sleep assessment with PET imaging to investigate connections between sleep disruption and Alzheimer's disease in healthy aging. Since joining the Mormino Lab in 2020, Joe’s research has explored how tracking sleep and other factors in everyday life can provide information about brain health and cognitive trajectories in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Post-docs
Karly Cody, PhD
Karly Cody completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin in the lab of Dr. Sterling Johnson. Her doctoral research focused on characterizing the preclinical disease stage of Alzheimer's disease using health, biomarker, and cognitive profiles obtained in late-midlife. At Stanford, Karly's research combines neuroimaging and fluid biomarkers to study trajectories of aging, including healthy brain aging as well as Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
Jintao Sheng, PhD
Jintao Sheng is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology working with Drs. Anthony Wagner and Elizabeth Mormino on the Stanford Aging and Memory Study. She completed her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at Beijing Normal University working with Dr. Gui Xue. During her PhD, Jintao focused on neural mechanisms of human episodic memory encoding from the perspective of neural representations across materials, individuals, and functional networks in healthy young adults. As a postdoc, Jintao will use a multimodal neuroimaging design to understand the underlying neural mechanisms of age-related memory decline.
Tammy Tran, PhD
Dr. Tammy Tran is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology working with Dr. Anthony Wagner and Dr. Elizabeth Mormino on the Stanford Aging and Memory Study. She is currently a Stanford ADRC REC Fellow and is interested in exploring the earliest signs of decline using structural and functional MRI in cognitively normal older adults. Tammy received her PhD at Johns Hopkins University in 2019 and received training in neuropsychology and high-resolution functional and structural neuroimaging, studying cognitively normal older adults and patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Clinical Research Coordinators
Michelle Budman
Michelle graduated from San Diego State University in 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a minor in Child Development. At SDSU, she was a Research Assistant at SDSU’s Brain Development Imaging Labs working with Drs. Inna Fishman and Annika Linke, where she gained experience scoring neuropsychological tests and surveys and assisting during functional MRI scans with toddlers. Michelle joined the Mormino Lab in November 2024 to learn more about neurodegenerative diseases and expand her understanding of human development in aging populations. In her free time, Michelle loves to try new coffee shops, thrift interesting pieces, and spending time at the beach.
Lucah Medina Guerra
Lucah graduated from the University of Southern California in 2024 with a Masters in Neuroimaging and Informatics. At USC, he volunteered in the Braskie Research Group, where he worked with the Amyloid and Tau PET scans for the HABS-HD study. Lucah joined the Mormino and Wagner Labs in June 2024 to expand his knowledge in neurodegenerative diseases and explore methods to improve their early detection using neuroimaging tools, while working on the Stanford Aging and Memory Study. In his free time, Lucah enjoys playing soccer, spending time with friends, and exploring the Bay Area.
Jennifer Park
Jen graduated from the University of Southern California in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Psychology. After graduating college, Jen worked at UC Davis at the Cognitive Electrophysiology and Neuroimaging Lab that seeks to develop methods sensitive to cognitive impairments of neurodegenerative diseases, and then was most recently working on the KHANDLE study that looks to shed light on racial & ethnic differences in aging, cognitive decline and dementia incidence. Jen joined the Mormino and Memory Labs in February 2022, and is looking forward to furthering her interests in the early detection of Alzheimer's Disease & other neurodegenerative diseases and in better understanding the changes that occur in the brain in preclinical AD. In her free time, Jen enjoys exploring new cafes, listening to r&b and jazz music, and spending time with her family.
Isha Sai
Isha graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Cognitive Science. At UCLA, the conducted research at the UCLA Brain Mapping center under Dr. Shantanu Joshi. Isha’s senior thesis investigated brain abnormalities and neuropsychiatric correlates in Long COVID (PASC) using structural MRI. Isha joined the Mormino and Wagner laboratories in September 2023 and is looking forward to deepening her interests and understanding of memory, neurodegenerative disease and neuroimaging while working on the Stanford Aging and Memory Study. In her free time, Isha enjoys arts and crafts, exploring coffee shops and spending time with friends and family.
Phyllis Tameilau
Phyllis graduated from UC Berkeley in 2024, majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Neurobiology. At Berkeley, she did research in Dr. Kevin Weiner’s lab, gaining experience in cognitive neuroanatomy through brain labeling, analyzing data from participants in ADNI, and conducting data analysis of structural MRI-based sulcal morphology. Phyllis joined the Mormino Lab in July 2024 to enhance her understanding of human aging and Alzheimer's disease and explore her interests in neurodegenerative diseases. For fun, she enjoys playing piano and ukulele, trying new food spots, traveling with family, and playing with her dog Floki.
Hillary Vossler
Hillary graduated from Trinity College in 2017 with a major in neuroscience and a minor in history. At Trinity, she executed an independent research project studying interventions for patients with mild cognitive impairment. Before coming to Stanford, she worked on the US POINTER Study, a behavioral trial that aims to assess whether an intensive lifestyle intervention can protect cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia. She joined the Mormino lab in June 2021 to further explore her interests in neuroimaging and to investigate the early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Outside of work, Hillary enjoys traveling, hiking, and skiing.
Skylar Weiss
Skylar graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2022 with a B.S. in Public Health and a minor in Statistics. At Cal Poly, she worked with Dr. Keadle's lab on StandUPTV, an NIH-funded project optimizing interventions for reducing sedentary screen time among adults. She discovered her passion for biomarker detection of preclinical Alzheimer's disease while working as a summer intern in the Biostatistics group at USC's Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute. In September 2023, she joined the Mormino Lab to expand her knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases as a neuroimaging coordinator. In her free time, Skylar can be found drawing, playing piano, and dipping in the ocean.
Data Analysts
Andrzej Sokołowski, PhD
Andrzej is a neuroscientist and data analyst who seeks to better understand the intersection of computer science and the human brain. Before joining the lab he completed postdoctoral training in clinical neuroscience at University of California San Francisco and in computer science at Concordia University in Montreal. His primary area of research is neuroinformatics and its feasibility to investigate the trajectory of neurodegenerative diseases using big data. He seeks to answer questions about human behavior through data, specifically the generalizability and robustness of neuroimaging biomarkers. In the Mormino Lab he develops and improves analytical pipelines, analyzes neuroimaging data focusing on PET data harmonization, and aims to understand the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases.
