Top Researchers
Top Medicine Researchers at University of California, Berkeley for 2026
Research in Medicine at the University of California, Berkeley spans a wide range of questions, from brain health and aging to infectious disease, maternal health, and imaging methods. Looking across the last year, the institution’s output shows a steady mix of clinical insight, population-focused work, and technical innovation.
Below, you’ll find a snapshot of researchers whose recent work reflects that breadth. Their publications point to active areas of inquiry and the kinds of problems Berkeley scholars are tackling across medicine and public health.
Featured Researchers
William J. Jagust
William J. Jagust, at the University of California, Berkeley, is advancing work on psychiatry and mental health, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience through studies of tau PET positivity, medial temporal lobe atrophy, and excitatory-inhibitory imbalance in Alzheimer’s disease.
Activity over the last year: 33 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Tau PET positivity in individuals with and without cognitive impairment varies with age, amyloid-β status, APOE genotype and sex (Jul 2025)
- Role of tau versus TDP‐43 pathology on medial temporal lobe atrophy in aging and Alzheimer's disease (Feb 2025)
- Distinct manifestations of excitatory-inhibitory imbalance associated with amyloid-β and tau in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (Aug 2025)
Theresa M. Harrison
Theresa M. Harrison, at the University of California, Berkeley, is focusing on psychiatry and mental health, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience, with recent publications on sex differences in longitudinal tau-PET, tau PET positivity, and cognitive aging outcomes.
Activity over the last year: 25 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Sex Differences in Longitudinal Tau-PET in Preclinical Alzheimer Disease (Mar 2025)
- Tau PET positivity in individuals with and without cognitive impairment varies with age, amyloid-β status, APOE genotype and sex (Jul 2025)
- Cognitive aging outcomes are related to both tau pathology and maintenance of cingulate cortex structure (Jan 2025)
Eva Harris
Eva Harris, at the University of California, Berkeley, is working across public health, infectious diseases, and virology, with recent papers on Zika preparedness, Zika vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, and dengue-specific T cells.
Activity over the last year: 18 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Susan M. Landau
Susan M. Landau, at the University of California, Berkeley, is contributing to psychiatry and mental health, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience through work on off-target PET signal, centiloid measures, and inclusive clinical research participation.
Activity over the last year: 22 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Higher off‐target meninges [F‐18]MK6240 PET signal associated with APOE4 carriage (Dec 2025)
- Every Centiloid, from Everywhere, All at Once (Dec 2025)
- Improving Generalizability of Clinical Research by Enrolling Low Socioeconomic Status Participants from Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (Dec 2025)
Fenyong Liu
Fenyong Liu, at the University of California, Berkeley, is publishing on epidemiology and molecular biology, with recent studies on cytomegalovirus vaccines, RNase P ribozymes, and congenital human cytomegalovirus.
Activity over the last year: 10 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Effective Immune Protection of Mice from Murine Cytomegalovirus Infection by Oral Salmonella-Based Vaccine Expressing Viral M78 Antigen (Jan 2025)
- Engineering of highly active gene targeting RNase P ribozyme against human cytomegalovirus infection (Feb 2025)
- Congenital Human Cytomegalovirus and the Complement System (Sep 2025)
Chunlei Liu
Chunlei Liu, at the University of California, Berkeley, is focused on radiology, nuclear medicine and imaging, alongside cognitive neuroscience, with recent work on dynamic MRI reconstruction and fast 3D quantitative MRI.
Activity over the last year: 15 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Spatiotemporal Implicit Neural Representation for Unsupervised Dynamic MRI Reconstruction (Jan 2025)
- Combined multispectral analysis and molecular docking to research the interaction of soybean isolate protein with different kinds of phospholipid liposomes and its effect on liposome properties (Jan 2025)
- Coordinate-based neural representation enabling zero-shot learning for fast 3D multiparametric quantitative MRI (Mar 2025)
Joseph A. Lewnard
Joseph A. Lewnard, at the University of California, Berkeley, is examining epidemiology, infectious diseases, and modeling and simulation, including indirect protection against SARS-CoV-2, pneumococcal vaccine coverage, and bacterial sexually transmitted infections.
Activity over the last year: 12 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Strength and durability of indirect protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection through vaccine and infection-acquired immunity (Jan 2025)
- Pneumococcal Serotype Distribution and Coverage of Existing and Pipeline Pneumococcal Vaccines (Jul 2025)
- Bacterial sexually transmitted infections and related antibiotic use among individuals eligible for doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis in the United States (Oct 2025)
Ndola Prata
Ndola Prata, at the University of California, Berkeley, is working in pediatrics, public health, and obstetrics and gynecology, with recent publications on self-managed abortion, telemedicine for medication abortion access, and maternal mortality in forcibly displaced populations.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Have Others Had This Experience? A Qualitative Analysis of Posts on Self‐Managed Abortion to US‐Based Reddit Community (May 2025)
- Innovation through telemedicine to improve medication abortion access in primary health centers: findings from a pilot study in Musanze District, Rwanda (May 2025)
- Maternal mortality due to abortion complications in forcibly displaced populations: A study protocol for a community-facility capture-recapture (CFCR) study (Feb 2025)
What University of California, Berkeley's Medicine Community Is Working On
The most common subfields center on cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry and mental health, and physiology, suggesting a strong Berkeley community working on brain aging, Alzheimer’s-related biomarkers, and the biological mechanisms that shape cognition. Alongside that core, public health and infectious disease research remains active, with attention to vaccines, transmission, and preparedness. Imaging, epidemiology, and maternal health add further breadth, showing a field that is moving between molecular detail, clinical application, and population-level questions.- Cognitive Neuroscience - seen across 4 of the featured researchers
- Psychiatry and Mental health - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Physiology - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Infectious Diseases - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
Taken together, these researchers show a community moving between mechanistic questions, patient-centered studies, and practical health challenges. If you’re tracking work like this for your own literature review, manuscript, or submission prep, Resub can help streamline citation discovery and formatting along the way.
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