Top Researchers
Top Neuroscience Researchers at University of Virginia for 2026
At the University of Virginia, neuroscience research over the last year has ranged from molecular and cellular mechanisms to clinical and behavioral studies. Across the institution, researchers are examining how brain circuits, microglia, sleep, pain, and neurodevelopmental conditions shape health and disease.
This overview highlights a set of faculty whose recent work reflects that breadth, showing how neuroscience at UVA connects laboratory discovery with patient-centered questions and real-world outcomes.
Featured Researchers
John R. Lukens
John R. Lukens has focused on neurology and molecular biology, with recent work spanning STING signaling, cerebral cavernous malformations, and astrocyte-driven hippocampal plasticity.
Activity over the last year: 10 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Jaideep Kapur
Jaideep Kapur’s recent neuroscience work links cellular and molecular mechanisms with psychiatry and mental health, including studies on spreading depression, status epilepticus, and respiratory dysfunction.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Patrick H. Finan
Patrick H. Finan has been working across cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and pharmacology on opioid effects, pain perception, and chronic pain intervention development.
Activity over the last year: 12 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Inter-individual divergence in thresholds for detecting opioid effects: Within-subject human laboratory evidence of a testable behavioral phenotype (Mar 2025)
- Temporal summation of pain varies across body regions: A cutaneous laser stimulation study in healthy controls (May 2025)
- Expectations and patient outcomes: a framework for intervention development in chronic pain management (May 2025)
Zhiyi Zuo
Zhiyi Zuo’s recent publications connect developmental neuroscience with critical care and cellular neuroscience, covering postoperative delirium, ischemic recovery, and fear-memory circuitry.
Activity over the last year: 7 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Surgery May Be a Major Contributor for Postoperative Delirium in Patients With Elective Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Procedures (Jul 2025)
- Chronic high fat diet-induced cerebrovascular remodeling impairs recovery of blood flow after cerebral ischemia in mice (Jan 2025)
- Auditory fear memory retrieval requires BLA-LS and LS-VMH circuitries via GABAergic and dopaminergic neurons (Mar 2025)
Micah O. Mazurek
Micah O. Mazurek has concentrated on cognitive neuroscience and clinical psychology, with recent studies on discrimination experienced by autistic youth, clinician training, and work participation.
Activity over the last year: 7 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Prevalence of discrimination experienced by autistic youth as compared to neurotypical youth and youth with other neurodevelopmental diagnoses (Jan 2025)
- Building Capacity: A Systematic Review of Training in the Diagnosis of Autism for Community‐Based Clinicians (Mar 2025)
- Work Participation of Autistic Adolescents (Jan 2025)
B. Jill Venton
B. Jill Venton’s recent work sits at the intersection of engineering and neuroscience, including microglial control of cerebrovascular reactivity and coding principles in serotonergic and dopaminergic transmission.
Activity over the last year: 7 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Ukpong B. Eyo
Ukpong B. Eyo’s research spans neurology, immunology, and physiology, with recent papers on microglial regulation of vascular tone and broader advances in brain and peripheral vascular control.
Activity over the last year: 7 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Mark Quigg
Mark Quigg has been publishing across psychiatry and mental health, cognitive neuroscience, and cellular neuroscience, with work on insomnia treatment, caregiver sleep, and pain processing.
Activity over the last year: 8 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- A randomized controlled trial of a digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia for older adults (Jul 2025)
- Sleepiness, sleep time, and depression of caregivers are linked with sleep and behaviors of their paired partners with dementia (Jan 2025)
- Temporal summation of pain varies across body regions: A cutaneous laser stimulation study in healthy controls (May 2025)
What University of Virginia's Neuroscience Community Is Working On
The most common subfields in this UVA neuroscience snapshot cluster around cellular and molecular neuroscience, psychiatry and mental health, and cognitive neuroscience, suggesting a community that is actively tracing how brain biology relates to behavior, symptoms, and treatment. Neurology and molecular biology also appear repeatedly, reinforcing a strong translational thread: researchers are not only studying mechanisms in cells and circuits, but also asking how those mechanisms inform epilepsy, vascular function, autism, pain, sleep, and neurodegenerative disease.- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Psychiatry and Mental health - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Cognitive Neuroscience - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Neurology - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Molecular Biology - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
These recent publications offer a useful snapshot of how neuroscience at the University of Virginia is moving across scales, from cells and circuits to cognition and care. If you are exploring your own publication workflow, Resub can help with citation discovery, manuscript formatting, and submission preparation so you can spend more time on the research itself.
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