Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry
Now is the time to work together to deepen our understanding of the neurobiology that underpins our capacity for expressing ourselves and understanding one another.
Marilu is a behavioral neurologist whose work concentrates on behavioral neurology across the lifespan and investigates the neural basis of higher cognitive functions such as language and memory. Her research resulted in new diagnostic criteria for PPA and its variants. She co-founded the UCSF Dyslexia Center.
Creativity and interdisciplinary team leadership
The neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases that affect language can have a fundamental impact on wellbeing. Now is the time to work together to deepen our understanding of the neurobiology that underpins our capacity for expressing ourselves and understanding one another.
As Director of the Language Neurobiology Laboratory of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Marilu is mentoring the next generation of scientists and clinicians to translate our deepening understanding of the neurobiology of language to improve the lives of people living with dyslexia and primary progressive aphasia.
Marilu's lab brings many scientific disciplines together to discover structural and functional differences in the brains of children and adults with dyslexia and older people with primary progressive aphasia. They use these discoveries to generate specific interventions that leverage the strengths of each individual to support their learning and wellbeing.
Marilu obtained her medical degree and clinical neurology specialty training at the University of Brescia in Italy, and a PhD in the neuroimaging of language from University College London and completed her Clinical Fellowship at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center. She is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at UCSF where she holds the Charles Schwab Distinguished Professorship in Dyslexia and Neurodevelopment.