Top Researchers
Top Neuroscience Researchers at University of Alberta for 2026
The University of Alberta’s recent Neuroscience research spans the lab, clinic, and data-driven analysis, showing how investigators are connecting brain, behavior, and disease across a wide range of questions. From imaging and computational methods to neurological disorders and mental health, the work below reflects a broad and active research community.
As you explore the featured researchers, you’ll see how their recent publications cluster around shared themes such as neurology, cellular and molecular neuroscience, pharmacology, and clinical psychology, with some projects also drawing on artificial intelligence and imaging approaches.
Featured Researchers
Witold Pedrycz
Witold Pedrycz’s recent work at the University of Alberta brings artificial intelligence and computational methods into neuroscience, including EEG signal analysis and Alzheimer’s disease imaging.
Activity over the last year: 9 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Time Series Signal Analysis With Information Granulation Based on Permutation Entropy: An Application to Electroencephalography Signals (Feb 2025)
- A multiview-slice feature fusion network for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease with structural MRI images (Feb 2025)
- FCAformer: Fuzzy-Enhanced Class-Aware Attention Based Transformer for Weakly Supervised Histopathology Image Segmentation (Jun 2025)
Jason R. Plemel
Jason R. Plemel is focusing on developmental neuroscience and neurology, with recent publications centered on microglia, remyelination, and spinal cord injury.
Activity over the last year: 8 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Senescent-like microglia limit remyelination through the senescence associated secretory phenotype (Mar 2025)
- A focus on the normal-appearing white and gray matter within the multiple sclerosis brain: a link to smoldering progression (Aug 2025)
- Reawakening inflammation in the chronically injured spinal cord using lipopolysaccharide induces diverse microglial states (Feb 2025)
Sanjay Kalra
Sanjay Kalra’s recent neuroscience-related publications at the University of Alberta examine amyotrophic lateral sclerosis through machine learning, brain atrophy, and disease vulnerability.
Activity over the last year: 7 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Regional Cerebral Atrophy Contributes to Personalized Survival Prediction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Multicentre, Machine Learning, Deformation‐Based Morphometry Study (Feb 2025)
- Network spreading and local biological vulnerability in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Aug 2025)
- Pathological Aging of Patients With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Preliminary Longitudinal Study (May 2025)
Oksana Suchowersky
Oksana Suchowersky’s recent neurology-focused work addresses inherited movement and motor disorders, including cerebellar ataxia, hereditary spastic paraplegia, and spinal bulbar muscular atrophy.
Activity over the last year: 6 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Heterozygous RAB3A variants cause cerebellar ataxia by a partial loss-of-function mechanism (Mar 2025)
- Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia in Alberta: Lessons from a Well‐Defined Cohort Including the Indigenous Population (May 2025)
- Best practice recommendations for the clinical care of spinal bulbar muscular atrophy (Sep 2025)
Jennifer Swainson
Jennifer Swainson is working at the intersection of pharmacology, biological psychiatry, and clinical psychology, with systematic reviews on ketamine, psilocybin, and suicide-related outcomes in substance use disorders.
Activity over the last year: 6 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Pan Liu
Pan Liu’s recent publications connect clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience through EEG and ERP studies of self-referential processing, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms in early adolescence.
Activity over the last year: 4 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Late positive potentials elicited by negative self-referential processing predict increases in social anxiety, but not depressive, symptoms from age 11 to age 12 (Jan 2025)
- Self-positivity bias: A comprehensive examination of the ERP and behavioral substrates of self- and other-referential processing in early adolescence (Nov 2025)
- Bidirectional associations between self-referential processing and depressive symptoms in early adolescents: A two-wave EEG study (Dec 2025)
Bradley J. Kerr
Bradley J. Kerr’s work combines physiology, neurology, and cellular and molecular neuroscience to explore microglial transitions, remyelination, and immune differences in pain states.
Activity over the last year: 5 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- A recent history of immune cell sex differences in the peripheral nervous system in persistent pain states (May 2025)
- Age-impaired remyelination is associated with dysregulated microglial transitions (Nov 2025)
- CSF1R ligands promote microglial proliferation but are not the sole regulators of developmental microglial proliferation (May 2025)
Frank Wuest
Frank Wuest’s recent publications sit at the edge of radiology, pharmacology, and cancer research, developing peptide-based imaging and theranostic approaches that are relevant to neuroscience-adjacent translational methods.
Activity over the last year: 4 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- 68 Ga-Labeled Peptides Targeting Oxytocin Receptor in Breast Cancer Using Linchpin Chemistry for Tandem Peptide Cyclization and Radiometal Chelator Incorporation (Nov 2025)
- Evaluation of theranostic bombesin antagonist 64Cu/67Cu-NOTA-Ava-BBN2 in Prostate Cancer (Nov 2025)
- Synthesis and Evaluation of Theranostic Mono- and Bivalent UniCAR T – Bombesin Peptide Conjugates in Prostate Cancer (Nov 2025)
What University of Alberta's Neuroscience Community Is Working On
Across the University of Alberta’s recent Neuroscience output, neurology appears most often, reflecting sustained attention to disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system. Cellular and molecular neuroscience is also prominent, with several researchers examining microglia, remyelination, immune signaling, and inherited disease mechanisms. Pharmacology and clinical psychology add further breadth, linking treatment studies and mental health research to the broader neuroscience landscape, while smaller but notable contributions from artificial intelligence and imaging point to growing computational support for brain research.- Neurology - seen across 4 of the featured researchers
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Pharmacology - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Clinical Psychology - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Artificial Intelligence - seen across 1 of the featured researchers
Taken together, these researchers show a field that is both clinically grounded and methodologically diverse, with strong momentum across discovery and translational work. If you’re building your own research workflow, Resub can help with citation discovery, manuscript formatting, and submission preparation so you can spend more time on the science.
Top researchers use tools to scale their productivity and impact. Try Livewrite for free today.