Interests
Jenny Zitser, MD
Neurologist
We need to improve the predictive capabilities of cognitive decline to protect at-risk populations.
Current Work
Jenny is an International Sleep Research Training Program (ISRTP) World Sleep Society Fellow at Stanford University. She is investigating non-motor manifestations of synucleinopathies, including cognitive, sleep and autonomic disturbances to be used as biomarkers for this specific group of diseases.
Personal Hero
Her grandmother
Words of Strength
Decisive and perseverant
Vision
Jenny believes we need to improve the predictive capabilities of cognitive decline to protect at-risk populations. We also need to broaden our scope to include sleep and autonomic disturbances, which often have a greater impact on the quality of life than dementia itself.
Strategy
Jenny is helping to define the pathological characteristics of skin biopsy for diagnosis of pre-motor manifestations of the synucleinopathies—a group of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease—as well as understanding the mechanism and finding biomarkers, with the hope to improve treatments.
Impact
Jenny acquired knowledge, tools, and connections to advance neurological care, while further emphasizing the importance of maintaining a healthy brain. She also developed the communication skills needed to educate the medical and general community about aging, sleep and autonomic disturbances.
Motivation
Through Jenny’s work, she realized that most patients can cope well with the motor limitations of neurodegenerative illnesses, but they find non-motor issues more challenging. Current treatments and tools are insufficient. Therefore, further research, resources, and application of skills are needed.
Education & Experience
Jenny studied medicine at the Universidad Central of Venezuela, where she graduated back in 2006. Shortly after she moved to Israel, where she did her Neurology Residency. Between 2015–2017 she worked as a Senior Neurologist and Head of the Huntington’s Disease Clinics at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Tel Aviv; Israel. There, she was also in charge of the MSA clinics. Afterward, in 2017, she moved to San Francisco to become an Atlantic Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). Between 2019–2021 she was an Associate Specialist at the Department of Neurology in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco in the United States. Since 2021 she is an International Sleep Research Training Program (ISRTP) World Sleep Society Fellow at Stanford University.
Awards & Honors
Featured Publications
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