Biography

Alex is a biomedical scientist focused on neurological and psychiatric disease pathogenesis and therapeutic development. Alex received his BA and PhD from UC Berkeley with additional research training at the UC San Francisco Memory & Aging Center under the joint mentorship of Dr. Lea Grinberg and Dr. Daniela Kaufer. His training included specialization in neuropathology, epidemiology, comparative neurology, molecular genetics, and cell biology. During his PhD, he focused on pathways underlying the selective vulnerability of neuromodulatory subcortical structures to neurodegenerative diseases and stress disorders, such as PTSD. Through his work establishing clinical research programs at UC Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) during graduate school and as a fellow with Dr. Jennifer Doudna, Alex became interested in gene and cell therapy applications to neurologic and psychiatric disorders.

Now, Alex is an investigator leading the Neuronal Resilience and Vulnerability in Aging (NERVA) lab at IGI. His background spans neuropathology, genetics, and cell biology with a particular focus on the mechanisms underlying selective vulnerability – why certain cells are vulnerable to neurodegenerative diseases and others are not. His team combines neuropathology, functional genomics, and advanced histology/optical techniques such as spatial transcriptomics to discover novel disease mechanisms. They then leverage those mechanisms as targets for CRISPR-based therapeutic development. He and his team span the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center and the Innovative Genomics Institute.

Alex has received several awards and fellowships for his teaching and research including a graduate fellowship at the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, the NIH-sponsored Cell and Gene Therapy fellowship at UC Berkeley's Stem Cell Center, and a Tau Leadership Award from the Rainwater Charitable Foundation. Additionally, Alex has held several leadership roles with the Alzheimer's Association, including a three year position as a science editor with their journal, Alzheimer's and Dementia, and serves as the chair for the neuromodulatory subcortical systems professional interest area for ISTAART.