Top Researchers
Top Medicine Researchers at Clemson University for 2026
Clemson University researchers working in Medicine have been active across a wide mix of topics, from patient care and cognitive aging to infectious disease modeling and musculoskeletal health. Taken together, their recent work shows a campus community moving between clinical questions, public health needs, and the biological mechanisms that shape health outcomes.
Below, you’ll find a closer look at the researchers whose recent publications stood out over the past year. Their work reflects both disciplinary breadth and a strong focus on practical problems affecting patients, caregivers, and health systems.
Featured Researchers
Anjali Joseph
Anjali Joseph at Clemson University has focused on emergency department care for pediatric mental and behavioral health patients, with recent work on communication patterns, patient journey mapping, and systems-level recommendations.
Activity over the last year: 12 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Investigating the Role of the Physical Environment on Communication Patterns in Emergency Departments During Caregiving for Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Patients (Feb 2025)
- Using patient journey mapping and provider workflows to understand process barriers to pediatric mental and behavioral health care in emergency departments (Mar 2025)
- A Systems Approach to Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Healthcare in Emergency Departments: Recommendations From a National Workshop (Sep 2025)
Zahra Rahemi
Zahra Rahemi at Clemson University has centered recent work on dementia, caregiving burden, and cognitive health, including consensus guidance on sharing research results in Alzheimer’s disease research.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Recommended approaches to sharing individual research results in Alzheimer's disease research: A multidisciplinary expert Delphi consensus (Sep 2025)
- Caregiving burdens of task time and task difficulty among paid and unpaid caregivers of persons living with dementia (Jul 2025)
- Exploring social determinants of healthcare and cognition levels among diverse older adults (Jan 2025)
Lior Rennert
Lior Rennert at Clemson University has been publishing on infectious disease hospitalizations, mobile health clinic vaccination planning, and healthcare access questions, alongside work on reproductive healthcare for postpartum patients with substance use disorders.
Activity over the last year: 9 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Reproductive healthcare professionals’ comfort to treat postpartum patients with substance use disorders (Jul 2025)
- Machine learning approaches for real-time ZIP code and county-level estimation of state-wide infectious disease hospitalizations using local health system data (Apr 2025)
- Predicting mobile health clinic utilization for COVID-19 vaccination in South Carolina: A statistical framework for strategic resource allocation (Jun 2025)
Hai Yao
Hai Yao at Clemson University has recently examined connective tissue biology in hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, with related work on intervertebral disc mechanics and tissue remodeling.
Activity over the last year: 12 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Hye Won Chai
Hye Won Chai at Clemson University has explored sexual experience, marital quality, functional intervention trials, and the needs of people living with cognitive impairment and dementia.
Activity over the last year: 10 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- The Gendered Sexual Experiences and Marital Quality of Middle-Aged Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples (Mar 2025)
- The Everyday Function Intervention Trial (EFIT) protocol: A randomized clinical trial (Jan 2025)
- Examining the care priorities, service needs and lived experiences of rural people with cognitive impairment and dementia in Canada: a scoping review protocol (Nov 2025)
Lesley A. Ross
Lesley A. Ross at Clemson University has focused on Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive reserve, and intervention participation, with additional work tied to the Everyday Function Intervention Trial.
Activity over the last year: 10 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Investigation of risk of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and survival based on variation to life experiences used to operationalize cognitive reserve (Mar 2025)
- The Everyday Function Intervention Trial (EFIT) protocol: A randomized clinical trial (Jan 2025)
- Participant motivation typologies as correlates of study participation and retention in randomized controlled trials targeting cognitive aging through computerized cognitive training (Nov 2025)
Yongren Wu
Yongren Wu at Clemson University has been studying intervertebral disc degeneration, oxidative stress, and the effects of mechanical stress and cigarette smoke on disc health.
Activity over the last year: 8 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- REDOX Imbalance and Oxidative Stress in the Intervertebral Disc: The Effect of Mechanical Stress and Cigarette Smoking on ER Stress and Mitochondrial Dysfunction (Apr 2025)
- Characterizing baseline fixed charge density in human cervical intervertebral discs (Jan 2025)
- Endplate remodeling: a key indicator of cigarette smoke exposure–induced intervertebral disc degeneration in a male rat model (Jan 2025)
Luigi Boccuto
Luigi Boccuto at Clemson University has recently worked on genetics, metabolism, and substance use disorder biomarkers, including studies of CYP2D6 expression and infertility-related gene analysis.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Assessment of CYP2D6 gene expression in liver tissue: Variability in CYP2D6 mRNA levels within genotype-predicted metabolizer phenotype groups (Apr 2025)
- LC-MS/MS Detection of Tryptophan, Kynurenine, Kynurenic Acid, and Quinolinic Acid in Urine Samples from Drug-Positive and Illicit Drug-Negative Patients with a Known History of Substance Use Disorder (Nov 2025)
- Genetics of ovulatory dysfunction and infertility: a scoping review and gene ontology analysis (Jun 2025)
What Clemson University's Medicine Community Is Working On
Across the most common subfields, Clemson University’s Medicine researchers are concentrating on public health, psychiatry and mental health, and molecular biology. That combination points to a community that is working both upstream and downstream: understanding population needs, improving mental and behavioral healthcare, and probing the biological processes behind disease and treatment response. The broader set of topics also suggests steady attention to caregiving, aging, infectious disease, and connective tissue health, all of which appear to be active areas of inquiry.- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Psychiatry and Mental health - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Molecular Biology - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Algebra and Number Theory - seen across 1 of the featured researchers
- Geometry and Topology - seen across 1 of the featured researchers
These recent publications offer a useful snapshot of how Medicine research at Clemson University is connecting clinical insight, population health, and biomedical investigation. If you’re tracking similar literature, tools that help with citation discovery, manuscript formatting, and submission preparation can make that workflow easier to manage.
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