Our mentors

Parichita Choudhury, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Cognitive Neurologist, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Arizona-Phoenix
Banner Sun Health Research Institute

Dr. Parichita Choudhury is board-certified in neurology and dementia and practices at Banner Sun Health Research Institute. She completed her medical school at University of Alberta, Canada followed by neurology residency training at University of Calgary, Canada. She then completed her clinical fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In addition to providing clinical care, she is involved in multiple clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s Disease at BSHRI. She also conducts research in the dementia care and areas of interest include early diagnosis of dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and sex differences in dementia care. She is a clinical assistant professor at University of Arizona, directs the Neuroscience Scholars Program and leads several educational initiatives at BSHRI.

Mike Malek-Ahmadi, PhD, GStat

Bioinformatics Scientist
Banner Alzheimer’s Institute

Dr. Mike Malek-Ahmadi earned a BS from the University of Arizona, a MS from the University of South Florida and a PhD from the University of Westminster. He has worked in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research since 2003 and is an author on over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and normal aging. Dr. Malek-Ahmadi’s current work at the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute involves the analysis of clinical, neuroimaging, neuropsychological and neuropathological data used toward identifying and characterizing pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease.

Ileana Lorenzini, PhD

Banner Sun Health Research Institute

Ileana Lorenzini has been working in the field of Neuroscience for the past 22 years. Her major interest is to understand normal age-related changes and the disease mechanisms of neurodegeneration. She received a master’s degree in biotechnology and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU). During her doctoral career she focused on studying the changes in glial cell biology during chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

As a post-doctoral research fellow she worked at the neurology department, neuromuscular division at JHU and then joined Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona where she continued her studies using human induced pluripotent stem cells as a research model to study disease mechanisms of neurodegeneration. During her postdoctoral training she was awarded a fellowship from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund and from the Barrow Neurological Foundation. In 2022, she joined the Brain and Body Donation program as a a Neuropathology Research Scientist to focus on neuropathology of aging, dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. She supports scientists with tissue request inquiries, providing collected clinicopathological data and working with them through each step of the material transfer agreement process.

Geidy Serrano, PhD

Director, Civin Laboratory for Neuropathology
Brain and Body Donation Program
Banner Sun Health Research Institute

In 2000 Geidy Serrano graduated with honors from the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus and worked for a year in a biochemistry laboratory at the University of Florida. In 2006 she completed her doctoral degree in Anatomy at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus, where she developed scientific skills, not only technical but also analytical. While pursuing her doctoral degree, she received the Minority in Neuroscience Fellowship from the Society of Neuroscience and had the honor to do an Internship at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In 2007 she started a postdoctoral appointment at Emory University’s School of Medicine and received a National Research Service Award Training Grant (F32-NINDS). After three years of postdoctoral training, she joined the Brain and Body Donation program at Banner Sun Health Research, Sun City, Arizona. Her work allows her to contribute to brain and biospecimen research that pursues the understanding of neurological disorders around the world.

Her most recent research contributions are in neurodegeneration of aging in humans and gender differences. Her most recent publication suggests that, when affected by Alzheimer’s Disease, females progress more often to severe cognitive dysfunction, due to more severe neurofibrillary degeneration and greater loss of brain parenchyma. Other relevant work involved the search for a peripheral biopsy for Parkinson disease and a feasibility study of frontal cortex needle core biopsy for detection of characteristic proteinopathies of neurodegenerative diseases.

Angela Kuramoto

Banner Sun Health Research Institute

Angela Kuramoto graduated from the University of Phoenix with a master’s degree in Health Care Administration. She also has a bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University in Health Care Management. Angie has been working in leadership within the research industry for the last 25 years and is also a Respiratory Therapist. She has worked on numerous phase one through four clinical trials throughout her career. She is currently working at Banner Sun Health Research Institute as the Associate Director of Observational Research Programs. She is overseeing the cutting edge Brain and Body Donation program, the Center for Healthy Aging program and the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) consortium. These programs include over 1000 research participants combined, with a large variety of cognitive diagnoses to include Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment and various forms of Dementia.

Suet Theng Beh, PhD

Banner Sun Health Research Institute

Suet Theng Beh is a neuroscientist specializing in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. She earned her PhD in Basic Medical Sciences (Neuroscience) from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and currently leads the Human Cells Core for Translational Research at Banner Sun Health Research Institute. In this role, Beh oversees the collection, isolation, and biobanking of human fibroblasts, providing high-quality cellular models for studying age-related diseases.

Beh focuses on developing and optimizing protocols for reprogramming fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells and neurons. She collaborates closely with research teams to investigate mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, and their roles in neurodegeneration and aging. Her contributions support a variety of research projects aimed at advancing the understanding of cellular mechanisms involved in aging and disease progression, with the goal of improving disease modeling and supporting therapeutic advancements.

Noah Snyder-Mackler, PhD

Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences Associate Faculty, ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Research Center

Noah Snyder-Mackler is an Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences. His molecular and computational lab combines demographic and behavioral data with high throughput genomics and the requisite bioinformatic and statistical tools to probe the dynamic interaction between the environment and the genome. His goal is to understand the factors that modify molecular aging in the brain and body–research that he carries out using cutting-edge single cell genomic technologies. Snyder-Mackler received his doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania and was an NSF-funded postdoctoral fellow at Duke University. Snyder-Mackler’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and multiple non-profits.

Yize Li, PhD

Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences
ASU- Banner Neurodegenerative Research Center

Yize (Henry) Li is an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences. He came to ASU from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on antiviral innate immunity. Two recent studies have focused on the pathogenesis of Middle East respiratory coronavirus and endogenous double-stranded RNA induced CNS damage in the absence of ADAR1 activity, funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Ashley Boehringer, PhD

Research Assistant Professor
ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center

Ashley Boehringer is a Research Assistant Professor in the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center (NDRC) in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience at ASU and performed her post-doctoral training at Jefferson University. Her research focuses on the study of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease with a focus on the role that synaptic changes and intrinsic neuronal properties play in disease pathogenesis.

Ramon Velazquez, PhD

Asst Professor, ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center
Assistant Research Professor, School of Life Sciences

Ramon Velazquez is an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences and the Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. His research interests include identifying novel therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome. In particular, he focuses on early molecular events that trigger the progression of these diseases. He is also interested in drug discovery and dietary supplementation of B-like vitamins as a way to prevent disease progression. Velazquez received his doctoral degree at Cornell University and worked in the laboratory of Barbara Strupp. Velazquez was funded by the National Science Foundation Predoctoral fellowship as a graduate student and completed his postdoctoral training in molecular biology and neuroscience at ASU, where he was independently funded by the Alzheimer’s Association and via a NSF postdoctoral fellowship. Velazquez’s ultimate goal is to progress science while consecutively helping those who suffer from insidious neurodegenerative diseases.