Renaud La Joie, PhD, is the Edward and Pearl Fein Endowed Professor in Precision Care for Memory Disorders at UCSF. A neuroscientist and neuroimaging expert, his research seeks to understand why Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative conditions affect people differently. He uses advanced brain imaging, biological markers measured in blood and other body fluids, and tests of memory and thinking to study the brain changes that contribute to differences in symptoms and disease progression.
Dr. La Joie works closely with neuropathologists to compare brain changes detected during life with those observed after death. This work helps researchers interpret biomarkers more accurately and aims to improve diagnosis and prognosis for people experiencing cognitive decline.
Originally from Normandy, France, Dr. La Joie studied medicine before earning a master’s degree in neuroscience from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He completed his PhD in neuropsychology under Gaël Chételat, PhD, and Béatrice Desgranges, PhD, studying Alzheimer’s disease with PET and MRI brain imaging. After spending a year as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley with William Jagust, MD, he joined Gil Rabinovici, MD, at the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center in 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. La Joie joined the UCSF faculty in 2021.
He became co-lead of the neuroimaging core of UCSF’s National Institute on Aging-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in 2022 and joined the faculty of the Global Brain Health Institute in 2023.
Dr. La Joie’s honors include the 2018 Young Investigator Award from the Human Amyloid Imaging Conference, the 2020 de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging, the 2024 Christopher Clark Award for contributions to Alzheimer’s imaging research, and the 2020 UCSF Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars. He has co-authored approximately 200 peer-reviewed publications and was named to Clarivate’s 2024 list of Highly Cited Researchers.