Clinical observation
Questions emerging from patient care help researchers focus on the problems that matter most.
Collaborative science
Discovery moves farther
when we move together.
Our scientists and clinicians connect immune biology, glial biology, genetics, imaging, digital health, and patient-centered research to understand neurological disease and move promising ideas toward care.
How research moves here
One question can cross many teams.
The division’s strength is not a set of separate research categories. It is the exchange between laboratories, clinical programs, shared technologies, and the people living with the conditions we study.
Shared discovery
Teams combine biological models, imaging, genetics, biomarkers, and data to test ideas from more than one angle.
Translation and testing
Promising findings inform new measurements, therapies, and clinical studies—and the results generate the next questions.
Research network
Explore the teams behind the work.
Visit each team’s website for its people, scientific focus, methods, opportunities, and latest work.
Center
UCSF Center for Encephalitis and Meningitis
A multidisciplinary center advancing diagnosis, treatment, and discovery for complex inflammatory conditions of the brain.
Visit website Longitudinal studyEPIC Origins
A long-running study connecting clinical experience, imaging, and biological data to better understand the course of multiple sclerosis.
Visit websiteDivision laboratories
Direct links to collaborating research teams.
Evidence in motion
Selected work and studies.
A small, readable selection can show how research across the division moves from broad scientific questions to tools and evidence that matter in people’s lives.
Featured publications
Sergio E. Baranzini · Multiple Sclerosis · 2025
The Barancik award lecture: Multi-disciplinary research will be the key to stop, restore, and end MS
A multidisciplinary view of how genetics, the gut microbiome, and machine learning can work together to improve prediction and treatment in multiple sclerosis.
Ahmed Abdelhak et al. · JNNP · 2025
Blood biomarkers for predicting disability worsening in progressive multiple sclerosis
An international analysis examining whether blood levels of GFAP and neurofilament light can help predict disability worsening in progressive MS.
Alyssa Nylander et al. · Multiple Sclerosis · 2025
From “invisible” to “audible”: Speech features classify patient-reported fatigue in multiple sclerosis
A study of whether simple, low-burden speech tasks can help measure fatigue—an important symptom that can be difficult to observe directly.