People

Dr. Leng is an associate professor at UCSF in the Department of Psychiatry. She completed her undergraduate degree at Sun Yat-Sen University School of Medicine before earning her PhD in epidemiology at Cambridge University. At UCSF, she completed her postdoctoral training in sleep and neurodegeneration before joining the faculty.

As an internationally-trained epidemiologist, Dr. Leng is interested in studying the link between sleep and neurodegeneration in older adults. Her research focuses on the link between lifecourse sleep and cognitive decline (supported by an NIH R01 award), the development of digital biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease prediction (supported by an NIH R21 award), and the relationship between napping, sleep, circadian rhythms and risk of neurodegenerative diseases (supported by an NIH R00 award). 

Outside the lab, Dr. Leng enjoys playing the drums. As she also likes to practice lucid dreaming, Dr. Leng's interest in sleep goes beyond research.

UCSF Profile

Yi Fang

Postdoctoral Scholar

Yi is a postdoctoral scholar working with Dr. Leng at UCSF. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and an MD degree, and has finished neurology residency training, all at Zhejiang University in China. At MoonLAlT, her research focuses on the link between life course sleep and neurodegeneration.

In her free time, she enjoys fitness training, hiking, and more recently, horseback travels.

Sasha Milton

Research Coordinator 

Sasha is a research coordinator working with Dr. Leng at UCSF. He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology. At MoonLAIT, Sasha contributes to STAI-SHARP and other ongoing projects led by Dr. Leng. His current projects include an investigation of the association between markers of autonomic dysfunction and risk of Parkinson's disease and a study of longitudinal changes in sleep and their link to cognitive impairment. 

In his free time, Sasha enjoys playing music with his band, Elevation 404. He is also an avid backpacker, and has hiked large portions of the Pacific Crest Trail, which he hopes to complete in the future.

Jiawen Chen

Assistant Specialist

Jiawen is an assistant specialist working with Dr. Leng at UCSF. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Medicine in China, she completed an MPH degree in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at Yale University.  Her research at MoonLAIT focuses on the association between life-course sleep and cognitive impairment, working with multi-cohort longitudinal data.

Outside of work, Jiawen enjoys hiking and playing badminton. She is also a passionate foodie who loves to cook and occasionally cause some chaos in the kitchen. 

Jiong Chen 

Visiting PhD student 

Jiong Chen is a doctoral student at the Institute of Medical Technology, Peking University Health Science Center. He holds a bachelor's degree in Medical Information Management and Information Systems from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. As a visiting student at MoonLAIT, his research focuses on on identifying digital sleep biomarkers for adverse health outcomes including neurodegenerative diseases. 

Outside of his research work, Jon enjoys a variety of sports, such as fitness training, basketball, and boxing.

Shreya Shiju 

Undergraduate student

Shreya is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley majoring in neuroscience. Currently, she contributes to MoonLAIT as a research volunteer studying the association between longitudinal changes in sleep health parameters and cognitive impairment risk.

For fun, Shreya enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, exploring antique stores, and occasionally dabbling in photography.   

Lucy Moctezuma Tan

Volunteer

Lucy is a master’s student in Statistics at California State University, East Bay working with Dr. Leng at UCSF. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and has worked on multiple academic and industry research projects. At MoonLAlT, she is training to learn how to analyze polysomnography data and extract physiological markers used to predict different neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

In her free time, she enjoys long nature walks, drawing, dancing, and writing sci-fi stories.

Rafael Branco

Undergraduate student

Rafael is an undergraduate at UC Berkeley studying Psychology and Education. As a volunteer, he contributes to MoonLAIT’s ongoing research into mapping the relationship between sleep and neurodegeneration through digital biomarkers. As someone with close family experience with neurodegenerative disease, participation at MoonLAIT is extremely meaningful to him. 

In his free time, Rafael loves to paint, listen to far too many podcasts, and explore nature.