I am an Assistant Professor at Pathology, and Laboratory Medicine Dept. at the University of California Irvine. My laboratory is interested in examining the impact of human endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) on health and diseases. Studying ERVs has been limited given the lack of existing computational tools as they are highly repetitive and present in multiple copies throughout the genome, but we have now created a mapping pipeline for ERV analysis. We have applied this tool to correlate ERV changes with cancer relapse. We use this pipeline to investigate ERVs as potential biomarkers for early detection and basis for racial disparities in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis.

I am an Assistant Professor at UCI, and my lab works on identifying the molecular and circuit basis of disease vulnerability. In AD, we are interested in identifying the earliest triggers of AD pathogenesis in the brain with the hopes of identifying strategies to combat AD-related disease.

I am an assistant professor in statistics. I work on causal inference and longitudinal data methods and their applications to health. I am fortunate to have been collaborating with amazing colleagues and mentors at UCI MIND to investigate various aspects of Alzheimer's disease and related dementia.

Dr. Bueno is an Assistant Professor of Nursing teaching and recently accomplished his doctorate degree in nursing research. In his doctoral preparation, his research focus was exploring the experiences of caregivers for older adults to understand the health effects of their caregiver role and how to address improving their health and quality of life. More specifically, his research focused on the experiences of the understudied population of male caregivers for persons with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia, and how masculinity and gendered expectations influence their caregiver role. Additionally, during his predoctoral program, he was mentored by gerontological nurse researchers where he had the opportunity to contribute to multiple aspects of their ongoing research in aspects such as analysis and manuscript preparation. His previous clinical experiences as a bedside nurse have also influenced his program of research into older adult caregivers. As a nurse with clinical experience in med-surg, telemetry, and acute dialysis, Dr. Bueno had the opportunity to interact with many people with chronic illnesses. Within these experiences, he interacted with many family caregivers highlighting their important role in the long-term management of the patient’s chronic illness management. Moreover, Dr. Bueno's experience within academia as a nursing professor has highlighted the focus on chronic illness and gerontology education as the population of older adults continue to rise and the increased need for long-term health management provided by family caregivers. The specific chronic disease of interest of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias was influenced by having been a family caregiver himself for loved ones with the disease. To help apply his current and future research findings to improving the health of the community, he is a current volunteer community educator for the Orange County regional chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Dr. Bueno's past training and research experience in gerontology and caregiving combined with his experience as an academic educator for future nurses has adequately prepared him with the skills and knowledge to address the health of the older adult caregiving community.

Xiaoyu Shi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. Her research group uses optical and chemical approaches to develop super-resolution microscopy and spatial multiomics methods. She uses these cutting-edge technologies to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging and cancers. Prior to UC Irvine, she received training in super-resolution microscopy and nonlinear optics during her postdoctoral research with Dr. Bo Huang at UCSF and her Ph.D. studies with Dr. Cheuk-Yiu Ng at UC Davis. Professor Shi is the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2), the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Frontiers of Imaging Award, and the Hellman Fellow.