Oct 01, 2026 | Irvine Standard

Built for Breakthroughs and Excellence

From pioneering cell therapies for Huntington's disease to developing the first FDA-cleared stem cell treatment for spinal injuries, UC Irvine School of Medicine researchers are driving breakthroughs in neurobiology research.

Aug 31, 2026 | PsyPost

Blood Markers Reveal Two Separate Inflammatory Pathways Driving Alzheimer’s Disease

“There is growing evidence that inflammation and the brain’s immune response play an important role in Alzheimer’s disease, potentially well before symptoms emerge. But the literature has been somewhat inconsistent,” said study co-authors Michael A. Yassa, the James L. McGaugh Endowed Chair, and director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.

Aug 25, 2026 | AARP

Bill Ritter, Captain Sully, Danny Glover and the New Reality of Alzheimer’s

“We often only talk about or see people who are in more advanced stages, where it’s quite obvious that they’re impaired. But there are lots of people who are still [in] very mild [stages] and still functioning well in society and able to do most of their day-to-day activities without too much difficulty,” says Hayley B. Kristinsson, a [UCI Health] neuropsychologist and Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of California, Irvine.

Aug 21, 2026 | Phys.org

Lab-Grown Brain Models Gain a Sense of Place

"Brain organoids have become powerful tools for studying human development, but the human brain is a highly organized space," says lead author Momoko Watanabe, PhD, assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology in the UC Irvine School of Medicine and a faculty member of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.

Aug 21, 2026 | Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Lab-Grown Neocortex Models Mimic Early Brain Organization

Scientists at the University of California (UC), Irvine, have developed a new approach that lets them engineer lab-grown human brain tissue with a defined regional identity. The result is brain organoids with characteristics of either the front or back of the developing cerebral cortex that could be used in studies of how neurodevelopmental disorders develop.

Aug 17, 2026 | The Scientist

How a Neuroscientist's Genetic Discovery Treated Her Daughter's Epilepsy

“Tracy is very good at bringing scientists and clinicians with very different scopes of expertise to all work together,” said Jennifer Gelinas, a UCI Health neurologist, a pediatric epileptologist and scientist at the University of California, Irvine. “She has been really transformative in terms of helping patients and families to understand their diagnosis, to know what options are available to them, [and] to have a sense of agency and ownership,” said Gelinas.

Aug 11, 2026 | NBC San Diego

UC Irvine Research Study How Ibogaine May Help Treat Opioid Addiction

Researchers at UC Irvine are trying to answer one of the biggest questions about ibogaine, a psychedelic that is still illegal in the United States, but which is increasingly becoming a focus for scientists trying to unlock its potential healing power. Professor Rick Harris is the neuroscientist leading the effort, working with volunteers. “Our group is trying to understand how the ibogaine might be working to break addictive circuitry” he says

Aug 11, 2026 | National Institutes of Health

Childhood Screen Detects Mental Health Risk

An NIH-funded research team led by Dr. Tallie Z. Baram at the University of California, Irvine and Dr. Laura Glynn at Chapman University …. added five unpredictability measures to a current adversity screen. They tested whether these measures helped improve the detection of childhood mental health conditions.