Yalda Pourshaban

Yalda is a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Rehabilitation Sciences Institute and the Cognitive Brain Health Lab at Sunnybrook. Her research involves identifying an early and sensitive marker of Alzheimer’s disease using cognitive, neuroimaging, and blood-based biomarker data. Yalda is passionate about translational neuroscience and bridging the gap between clinical neuropsychology and neuropathology by connecting cognitive and behavioral symptoms directly to underlying brain pathologies.

Prior to beginning her PhD research, Yalda worked as a Research Assistant at the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease, Northwestern University, USA, studying clinicopathologic correlations between premortem neuropsychiatric/cognitive symptoms and postmortem neurodegenerative biomarkers at the center’s brain bank. She graduated from St. Olaf College, USA, with a B.A. in Biology and Neuroscience.

Aside from research, Yalda enjoys traveling and spending time with her family/friends.