Alexander Ehrenberg, PhD
Assistant Researcher
Neurology
School of Medicine

His team combines neuropathology, functional genomics, and advanced histology/optical techniques such as spatial transcriptomics to discover novel disease mechanisms. They then leverage those mechanisms as targets for CRISPR-based therapeutic development. He and his team span the UCSF Edward and Perl Fein Memory and Aging Center and the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley.

• A cerebrospinal fluid synaptic protein biomarker for prediction of cognitive resilience versus decline in Alzheimer's disease.
  Nature medicine 2025 Oh HS, Urey DY, Karlsson L, Zhu Z, Shen Y, Farinas A, Timsina J, Duggan MR, Chen J, Guldner IH, Morshed N, Yang C, Western D, Ali M, Le Guen Y, Trelle A, Herukka SK, Rauramaa T, Hiltunen M, Lipponen A…
• Pathways underlying selective neuronal vulnerability in Alzheimer's disease: Contrasting the vulnerable locus coeruleus to the resilient substantia nigra.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2025 Ehrenberg AJ, Sant C, Pereira FL, Li SH, Buxton J, Langlois S, Trinidad M, Oh I, Leite REP, Rodriguez RD, Paes VR, Pasqualucci CA, Seeley WW, Spina S, Suemoto CK, Temple S, Kaufer D, Grinberg LT
• Spatial proteomic differences in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer's disease, and primary age-related tauopathy hippocampi.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2024 Richardson TE, Orr ME, Orr TC, Rohde SK, Ehrenberg AJ, Thorn EL, Christie TD, Flores-Almazan V, Afzal R, De Sanctis C, Maldonado-Díaz C, Hiya S, Canbeldek L, Kulumani Mahadevan LS, Slocum C, Samanamud…
• Neuropsychiatric Profiles and Cerebral Amyloid Burden in Adults without Dementia.
  Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders 2024 Gontrum EQ, Paolillo EW, Lee S, Diaz V, Ehrenberg A, Saloner R, Mundada NS, La Joie R, Rabinovici G, Kramer JH, Casaletto KB
• Enlarged perivascular spaces are associated with white matter injury, cognition and inflammation in cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy.
  Brain communications 2024 Karvelas N, Oh B, Wang E, Cobigo Y, Tsuei T, Fitzsimons S, Younes K, Ehrenberg A, Geschwind MD, Schwartz D, Kramer JH, Ferguson AR, Miller BL, Silbert LC, Rosen HJ, Elahi FM
• Spatial proteomics of hippocampal subfield-specific pathology in Alzheimer's disease and primary age-related tauopathy.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2023 Walker JM, Orr ME, Orr TC, Thorn EL, Christie TD, Yokoda RT, Vij M, Ehrenberg AJ, Marx GA, McKenzie AT, Kauffman J, Selmanovic E, Wisniewski T, Drummond E, White CL, Crary JF, Farrell K, Kautz TF, …
• Priorities for research on neuromodulatory subcortical systems in Alzheimer's disease: Position paper from the NSS PIA of ISTAART.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2023 Ehrenberg AJ, Kelberman MA, Liu KY, Dahl MJ, Weinshenker D, Falgàs N, Dutt S, Mather M, Ludwig M, Betts MJ, Winer JR, Teipel S, Weigand AJ, Eschenko O, Hämmerer D, Leiman M, Counts SE, Shine JM, …
• Caspase-6-cleaved tau is relevant in Alzheimer's disease and marginal in four-repeat tauopathies: Diagnostic and therapeutic implications.
  Neuropathology and applied neurobiology 2022 Theofilas P, Piergies AMH, Oh I, Lee YB, Li SH, Pereira FL, Petersen C, Ehrenberg AJ, Eser RA, Ambrose AJ, Chin B, Yang T, Khan S, Ng R, Spina S, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Arkin MR, Grinberg LT
• Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers in Autopsy-Confirmed Alzheimer Disease and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration.
  Neurology 2022 Mattsson-Carlgren N, Grinberg LT, Boxer A, Ossenkoppele R, Jonsson M, Seeley W, Ehrenberg A, Spina S, Janelidze S, Rojas-Martinex J, Rosen H, La Joie R, Lesman-Segev O, Iaccarino L, Kollmorgen G, …
• Optimizing COVID-19 control with asymptomatic surveillance testing in a university environment.
  Epidemics 2021 Brook CE, Northrup GR, Ehrenberg AJ, IGI SARS-CoV-2 Testing Consortium, Doudna JA, Boots M
• LuNER: Multiplexed SARS-CoV-2 detection in clinical swab and wastewater samples.
  PloS one 2021 Stahl EC, Gopez AR, Tsuchida CA, Fan VB, Moehle EA, Witkowsky LB, Hamilton JR, Lin-Shiao E, McElroy M, McDevitt SL, Ciling A, Tsui CK, Pestal K, Gildea HK, Keller A, Sylvain IA, Williams C, Hirsh A, …
• Optimizing COVID-19 control with asymptomatic surveillance testing in a university environment.
  medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 2021 Brook CE, Northrup GR, Ehrenberg AJ, IGI SARS-CoV-2 Testing Consortium, Doudna JA, Boots M
• Robotic RNA extraction for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance using saliva samples.
  PloS one 2021 Hamilton JR, Stahl EC, Tsuchida CA, Lin-Shiao E, Tsui CK, Pestal K, Gildea HK, Witkowsky LB, Moehle EA, McDevitt SL, McElroy M, Keller A, Sylvain I, Hirsh A, Ciling A, Ehrenberg AJ, Ringeisen BR, …
• Launching a saliva-based SARS-CoV-2 surveillance testing program on a university campus.
  PloS one 2021 Ehrenberg AJ, Moehle EA, Brook CE, Doudna Cate AH, Witkowsky LB, Sachdeva R, Hirsh A, Barry K, Hamilton JR, Lin-Shiao E, McDevitt S, Valentin-Alvarado L, Letourneau KN, Hunter L, Keller A, Pestal K, …
• Patterns of neuronal Rhes as a novel hallmark of tauopathies.
  Acta neuropathologica 2021 Ehrenberg AJ, Leng K, Letourneau KN, Hernandez I, Lew C, Seeley WW, Spina S, Miller B, Heinsen H, Kampmann M, Kosik KS, Grinberg LT
• A novel temporal-predominant neuro-astroglial tauopathy associated with TMEM106B gene polymorphism in FTLD/ALS-TDP.
  Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) 2021 Llibre-Guerra JJ, Lee SE, Suemoto CK, Ehrenberg AJ, Kovacs GG, Karydas A, Staffaroni A, Franca Resende EP, Kim EJ, Hwang JH, Ramos EM, Wojta KJ, Pasquini L, Pang SY, Spina S, Allen IE, Kramer J, …
• Molecular characterization of selectively vulnerable neurons in Alzheimer's disease.
  Nature neuroscience 2021 Leng K, Li E, Eser R, Piergies A, Sit R, Tan M, Neff N, Li SH, Rodriguez RD, Suemoto CK, Leite REP, Ehrenberg AJ, Pasqualucci CA, Seeley WW, Spina S, Heinsen H, Grinberg LT, Kampmann M
• IGI-LuNER: single-well multiplexed RT-qPCR test for SARS-CoV-2.
  medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 2020 Stahl EC, Tsuchida CA, Hamilton JR, Lin-Shiao E, McDevitt SL, Moehle EA, Witkowsky LB, Tsui CK, Pestal K, Gildea HK, McElroy M, Keller A, Sylvain I, Williams C, Hirsh A, Ciling A, Ehrenberg AJ, IGI …
• Blueprint for a pop-up SARS-CoV-2 testing lab.
  Nature biotechnology 2020 IGI Testing Consortium
• Relevance of biomarkers across different neurodegenerative diseases.
  Alzheimer's research & therapy 2020 Ehrenberg AJ, Khatun A, Coomans E, Betts MJ, Capraro F, Thijssen EH, Senkevich K, Bharucha T, Jafarpour M, Young PNE, Jagust W, Carter SF, Lashley T, Grinberg LT, Pereira JB, Mattsson-Carlgren N, …
• A manual multiplex immunofluorescence method for investigating neurodegenerative diseases.
  Journal of neuroscience methods 2020 Ehrenberg AJ, Morales DO, Piergies AMH, Li SH, Tejedor JS, Mladinov M, Mulder J, Grinberg LT
• Language and spatial dysfunction in Alzheimer disease with white matter thorn-shaped astrocytes.
  Neurology 2020 Resende EPF, Nolan AL, Petersen C, Ehrenberg AJ, Spina S, Allen IE, Rosen HJ, Kramer J, Miller BL, Seeley WW, Gorno-Tempini ML, Miller Z, Grinberg LT
• Locus coeruleus imaging as a biomarker for noradrenergic dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases.
  Brain : a journal of neurology 2019 Betts MJ, Kirilina E, Otaduy MCG, Ivanov D, Acosta-Cabronero J, Callaghan MF, Lambert C, Cardenas-Blanco A, Pine K, Passamonti L, Loane C, Keuken MC, Trujillo P, Lüsebrink F, Mattern H, Liu KY, …
• Profound degeneration of wake-promoting neurons in Alzheimer's disease.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2019 Oh J, Eser RA, Ehrenberg AJ, Morales D, Petersen C, Kudlacek J, Dunlop SR, Theofilas P, Resende EDPF, Cosme C, Alho EJL, Spina S, Walsh CM, Miller BL, Seeley WW, Bittencourt JC, Neylan TC, Heinsen H, …
• Alzheimer's disease clinical variants show distinct regional patterns of neurofibrillary tangle accumulation.
  Acta neuropathologica 2019 Petersen C, Nolan AL, de Paula França Resende E, Miller Z, Ehrenberg AJ, Gorno-Tempini ML, Rosen HJ, Kramer JH, Spina S, Rabinovici GD, Miller BL, Seeley WW, Heinsen H, Grinberg LT
• Commentary: Locus Coeruleus Ablation Exacerbates Cognitive Deficits, Neuropathology, and Lethality in P301S Tau Transgenic Mice.
  Frontiers in neuroscience 2018 Betts MJ, Ehrenberg AJ, Hämmerer D, Düzel E
• Selective Vulnerability of Brainstem Nuclei in Distinct Tauopathies: A Postmortem Study.
  Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology 2018 Eser RA, Ehrenberg AJ, Petersen C, Dunlop S, Mejia MB, Suemoto CK, Walsh CM, Rajana H, Oh J, Theofilas P, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Neylan TC, Heinsen H, Grinberg LT
• Neuropathologic Correlates of Psychiatric Symptoms in Alzheimer's Disease.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2018 Ehrenberg AJ, Suemoto CK, França Resende EP, Petersen C, Leite REP, Rodriguez RD, Ferretti-Rebustini REL, You M, Oh J, Nitrini R, Pasqualucci CA, Jacob-Filho W, Kramer JH, Gatchel JR, Grinberg LT
• Probing the correlation of neuronal loss, neurofibrillary tangles, and cell death markers across the Alzheimer's disease Braak stages: a quantitative study in humans.
  Neurobiology of aging 2017 Theofilas P, Ehrenberg AJ, Nguy A, Thackrey JM, Dunlop S, Mejia MB, Alho AT, Paraizo Leite RE, Rodriguez RD, Suemoto CK, Nascimento CF, Chin M, Medina-Cleghorn D, Cuervo AM, Arkin M, Seeley WW, Miller…
• Quantifying the accretion of hyperphosphorylated tau in the locus coeruleus and dorsal raphe nucleus: the pathological building blocks of early Alzheimer's disease.
  Neuropathology and applied neurobiology 2017 Ehrenberg AJ, Nguy AK, Theofilas P, Dunlop S, Suemoto CK, Di Lorenzo Alho AT, Leite RP, Diehl Rodriguez R, Mejia MB, Rüb U, Farfel JM, de Lucena Ferretti-Rebustini RE, Nascimento CF, Nitrini R, …
• Locus coeruleus volume and cell population changes during Alzheimer's disease progression: A stereological study in human postmortem brains with potential implication for early-stage biomarker discovery.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2016 Theofilas P, Ehrenberg AJ, Dunlop S, Di Lorenzo Alho AT, Nguy A, Leite REP, Rodriguez RD, Mejia MB, Suemoto CK, Ferretti-Rebustini REL, Polichiso L, Nascimento CF, Seeley WW, Nitrini R, Pasqualucci CA…