Siena Bertacco

Siena Bertacco is a fourth-year undergraduate at UCLA majoring in Physiological Science and minoring in Disability Studies. 

At DDL, she hopes to focus on the gut-brain connection to contribute to early-stage drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease. She will be working on testing in vitro new compounds from the sAPPalpha, Humanin mimetic, and enhancer projects, and the isolation and culture of enteric neurons.

Outside the lab, Siena enjoys fitness, being a member of the UCLA club Olympic Weightlifting team and a part of the board, loves to travel, studying abroad in Ireland doing physics, and is passionate about health equity and advocacy. She has done competitive Olympic weightlifting on and off since age 9, qualifying for youth nationals 4 times.

After graduation, she hopes to pursue an MD, aiming to specialize in Pediatric Rheumatology and advocate for those experiencing difficult autoimmune diagnoses.