Emeran Mayer, MD

Dr. Mayer is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology and Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, and has more than 15 years of experience in the study of clinical and neurobiological aspects of brain gut interactions in health and disease. He has published more than 110 original peerreviewed articles, 60 chapters and reviews, co-edited two books, and organized several interdisciplinary symposia in the area of visceral pain and mind body interactions. He has made seminal contributions to the characterization of physiologic alterations in patients with functional disorders, particularly in the area of interoceptive mechanisms, including visceral pain and altered brain responses in humans. Specifically, his research efforts include the study of cellular and molecular mechanisms of chemo- and mechanotransduction of primary afferent nerves; animal studies on stress modulation of visceral pain and associated autonomic responses; human physiology studies on cerebral, autonomic, neuroendocrine, and perceptual responses to visceral stimulation; and health outcomes, quality of life, and epidemiological studies in populations suffering from chronic gastrointestinal disorders.

He has two active R01 grants, one on basic mechanisms of NMDA receptors in visceral nociception, the other on brain and perceptual responses to visceral stimulation. He is P.I. on a subcontract of another R01 grant on the role of proteinase-activated receptors in neuronal activation. He has served on the editorial boards of the leading journals in digestive diseases, including Gastroenterology, Gut, Digestion and the American Journal of Physiology, and has served as reviewer for a wide range of medical and neuroscience journals, as an ad hoc reviewer for national and international funding agencies, and on ad hoc NIH study sections.

Dr. Mayer is Co-Director of the CURE Digestive Diseases Research Center and Chair of the UCLA Center for Integrative Medicine, a multidisciplinary and interdepartmental clinical and research program related to different aspects of Integrative and Mind Body Medicine.