Anli A. Liu, MD

"As long as the brain remains a mystery, so too will the universe." – Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934).

After nearly two decades of training and practice, I still believe I have one of the best jobs in the world – exploring the intricacies of the human brain. As a neurologist, I have the unique privilege of listening to my patients’ stories. They share their experiences with seizures, detailing how epilepsy has impacted their education, careers, social lives, and sense of identity. Others describe troubling lapses in memory or difficulty finding words, and express their fears about the future. Each narrative is distinct.   My role as a physician is to provide clarity, helping patients understand that their conditions have names and can be managed.

In my work as a neuroscientist, I focus on the big picture aspects of human memory, particularly why it fails in conditions like epilepsy and dementia. My lab is dedicated to three main areas: (1) developing tools to diagnose memory impairments at their earliest stages, (2) understanding the dynamic interactions between normal and disease-related events that influence memory, and (3) finding ways to restore memory function in patients.  Our work has been funded continuously by the NIH, private foundations, and philanthropy for the last decade.

Our lab works in close collaboration with an amazing group of basic neuroscientists, cognitive neuroscientists, biomedical engineers, data scientists, neuropsychologists, and physicians.  Additionally, I am passionate about inspiring and training the next generation of physicians and scientists to follow this path of inquiry and service.  Our intellectual home is within NYU Langone’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and the NYU ECoG Group. We belong to a vibrant research community which includes NYU Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone's Neuroscience Institute, NYU’s Center for Neural Science, and NYU’s Center for Data Science.