Top Researchers
Top Neuroscience Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis for 2026
Washington University in St. Louis has an especially active neuroscience research community, with work spanning brain health, cognition, and the biological mechanisms that shape neurological disease. Over the past year, the institution’s output reflects a broad mix of clinical, imaging, and experimental approaches.
Below, you’ll see a cross-section of researchers whose recent work highlights how neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis is connecting disease biomarkers, brain-immune biology, and cognitive function.
Featured Researchers
Brian A. Gordon
Brian A. Gordon’s recent work at Washington University in St. Louis centers on psychiatry and mental health, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience, with publications on Alzheimer disease pathology, dementia protection, and neurofilament quantification.
Activity over the last year: 51 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Longitudinal analysis of a dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease mutation carrier protected from dementia (Feb 2025)
- Decoding brain structure to stage Alzheimer's disease pathology in Down syndrome (Jan 2025)
- Clinical use and reporting of neurofilament quantification in neurological disorders: A global overview (Jun 2025)
Tammie L.S. Benzinger
Tammie L.S. Benzinger’s recent publications focus on psychiatry and mental health, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience, especially plasma p-tau217, tau-PET, and longitudinal Alzheimer disease studies.
Activity over the last year: 28 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Plasma p-tau217 and tau-PET predict future cognitive decline among cognitively unimpaired individuals: implications for clinical trials (Mar 2025)
- Longitudinal analysis of a dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease mutation carrier protected from dementia (Feb 2025)
- Decoding brain structure to stage Alzheimer's disease pathology in Down syndrome (Jan 2025)
Ganesh M. Babulal
Ganesh M. Babulal’s work at Washington University in St. Louis spans psychiatry and mental health, rehabilitation, and health, with recent studies on neuropsychiatric symptoms, environmental exposome, and cognitive function.
Activity over the last year: 18 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Updates and future perspectives on neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (Mar 2025)
- Association of environmental exposome and cognitive function among older adults with and without preclinical Alzheimer's disease (Jun 2025)
- Hearing loss, plasma neurodegenerative biomarkers, and cognitive function: Independent and additive effects (Sep 2025)
Jonathan Kipnis
Jonathan Kipnis is publishing on neurology, cellular and molecular neuroscience, and biological psychiatry, including the meningeal lymphatics-microglia axis, CNS immune privilege, and brain-immune interactions.
Activity over the last year: 18 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Deanna M. Barch
Deanna M. Barch’s recent work combines cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry and mental health, and clinical psychology, with studies on thalamocortical connectivity, MRI analysis bias, and research domain criteria.
Activity over the last year: 23 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Human thalamocortical structural connectivity develops in line with a hierarchical axis of cortical plasticity (Jul 2025)
- Addressing artifactual bias in large, automated MRI analyses of brain development (Jul 2025)
- A data-driven latent variable approach to validating the research domain criteria framework (Jan 2025)
Fábio A. Nascimento
Fábio A. Nascimento’s recent output links psychiatry and mental health, cognitive neuroscience, and epidemiology, including epilepsy marker detection in EEG and clinical electroencephalography resources.
Activity over the last year: 16 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Expert-Level Detection of Epilepsy Markers in EEG on Short and Long Timescales (Jun 2025)
- Education Research: The Landscape of Adult Neurology Residency Didactic Curricula in the United States (Mar 2025)
- Harvard Electroencephalography Database: A comprehensive clinical electroencephalographic resource from four Boston hospitals (Jun 2025)
Shuo Wang
Shuo Wang’s publications focus squarely on cognitive neuroscience, with recent studies of amygdala lateralization, memory representation, and synchronization across medial temporal and frontal networks.
Activity over the last year: 15 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- The case for hemispheric lateralization of the human amygdala in fear processing (Feb 2025)
- A neuronal code for object representation and memory in the human amygdala and hippocampus (Feb 2025)
- Gamma synchronization between the medial temporal lobe and medial frontal cortex for goal-directed visual attention in humans (Jun 2025)
Beau M. Ances
Beau M. Ances’ recent work at Washington University in St. Louis emphasizes psychiatry and mental health, physiology, and cognitive neuroscience, with a strong focus on Alzheimer biomarker research in Down syndrome.
Activity over the last year: 18 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- The Alzheimer's Biomarker Consortium–Down Syndrome (ABC‐DS): A 10‐year report (May 2025)
- Decoding brain structure to stage Alzheimer's disease pathology in Down syndrome (Jan 2025)
- Genetically determined Alzheimer's disease research advances: The Down Syndrome & Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer's Disease 2024 Conference (Jul 2025)
What Washington University in St. Louis's Neuroscience Community Is Working On
The most common subfields in this group show a strong emphasis on psychiatry and mental health and cognitive neuroscience, with physiology also appearing frequently. That combination suggests a community working across clinical characterization, brain function, and biological measurement, especially in studies of Alzheimer disease, cognitive decline, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and brain-immune signaling. Smaller but notable threads extend into rehabilitation, health, and epidemiology, reflecting a broad neuroscience portfolio that connects patient-centered questions with mechanistic research.- Psychiatry and Mental health - seen across 6 of the featured researchers
- Cognitive Neuroscience - seen across 6 of the featured researchers
- Physiology - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation - seen across 1 of the featured researchers
- Health - seen across 1 of the featured researchers
Taken together, these researchers show a department deeply engaged in both fundamental and clinically relevant neuroscience questions. If you’d like to keep up with work like this, explore the latest research from Washington University in St. Louis and consider using Resub to streamline citation discovery, manuscript formatting, and submission prep for your own projects.
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