People

People

Yan Li

Yan Li, PhD

Principal Investigator

Dr. Yan Li is an Associate Professor in the Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Department. Dr. Li received her medical degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, her Master of Science in Biochemistry from McGill University in Canada, and PhD from the UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering. Her research focuses on developing methods for obtaining reliable metabolic information from the brain to characterize spatial and temporal heterogeneity and the biological behavior during disease time for brain tumors and psychiatric and neurologic diseases.

Adam Autry, PhD

Specialist

After obtaining his PhD in Bioengineering from the Joint Graduate Program at UC Berkeley/UCSF, under the mentorship of Sarah J Nelson, Dr. Autry joined the Li Lab to continue research characterizing molecular markers of malignant brain tumors. His current work focuses on real-time imaging of in vivo metabolism in adults with infiltrating gliomas using the technique of hyperpolarized carbon-13 (HP-13C) MRI, which probes glycolytic and oxidative phosphorylation pathways by means of injectable tracers whose magnetization has been transiently enhanced via specialized instrumentation.

Maria Baida

Staff Research Assistant

Maria completed her MS in Biomedical Imaging at UCSF and then joined Dr. Li’s lab. Her current research is focused on processing and analyzing MR data from individuals with ASD.

Lina Cheung, BS

Clinical Research Coordinator

Lina received her BS in Public Health at the University of California, Irvine, and now works in Dr. Li’s lab recruiting and consenting patients, organizing research project files, and scheduling MR scans.

Marisa Lafontaine

Clinical Research Coordinator

Marisa works on consenting patients, acquiring advanced imaging data for research studies and clinical trials, data transfer, post-processing, and analyzing MR data. Marisa works on consenting patients, acquiring advanced imaging data for research studies and clinical trials, data transfer, post-processing, and analyzing MR data.

Leo Liu

Staff Research Associate

Leo Liu received a degree in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis and now works in the lab conducting research on MRSI and helping with operating scans. He has a background in MR neuroimage processing and analysis.

Tracy Luks, PhD

Specialist

The primary focus of Dr. Luks's current research program is to use advanced neuroimaging to advance our ability to optimize treatment for patients with neurological and psychiatric disorders by predicting and monitoring disease progression, treatment response, cognitive function, and quality of life (QoL) in these patients. In subjects with psychiatric disorders, the goal of the research is to understand the biological mechanisms of impairment and guide and evaluate behavioral and pharmacological interventions with functional neuroimaging.

Wendy Ma, BS

Clinical Research Coordinator

Wendy prepares and organizes documentation and files pertaining to the research projects, consents patients, and coordinates patient scans in Dr. Li’s lab.

Xin Mu, MD, MS

Staff Research Assistant

Dr. Mu focuses on recruiting and consenting patients for hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI studies and imaging data analysis. 

Sana Vaziri, PhD

Research Data Analyst

Dr. Vaziri is interested in developing advanced processing methods for metabolic imaging (proton MR spectroscopy and hyperpolarized carbon-13) and analyzing multimodal imaging data to improve the evaluation of patients with glioma. She also works on developing AI-based methods to process and analyze MR spectroscopic data.

Xiaonan (April) Xing, BS

Graduate Student Researcher

April received her double bachelor's degrees in Bioengineering and Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is currently a Bioengineering PhD student in the Joint Graduate Program at UC Berkeley/UCSF, and works on MR spectroscopy in neurological disorders and hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI in patients with brain tumors.