Vivek Swarup
Biography
Vivek Swarup, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on the molecular and regulatory mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, with a particular emphasis on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Swarup's laboratory integrates systems biology, functional genomics, and multi-omic technologies—including single-nucleus transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling—to characterize gene regulatory networks in the aging and diseased brain. He also serves as Director of the Genomics Core for UCI's MODEL-AD center, a national consortium focused on next-generation mouse model development and therapeutic discovery for Alzheimer's disease.
Swarup completed his doctoral training at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, where he studied TDP-43 pathology in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He subsequently trained as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, under Daniel Geschwind, M.D., Ph.D., where he contributed to large-scale national genomics consortia, including the PsychENCODE Consortium and the Accelerating Medicines Partnership–Alzheimer's Disease (AMP-AD) initiative, and developed expertise in multi-omic data integration across neurological diseases.
Since joining UC Irvine in 2018, Swarup has built an independently funded research program supported by multiple NIH grants. His work spans Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington's disease, and addiction, with a unifying focus on identifying conserved gene networks and novel therapeutic targets across neurological conditions. He received the New Investigator Award in Alzheimer's Disease from the American Federation for Aging Research in 2018 and the John S. Spice Award in Aging from the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation in 2017. Swarup received a Ph.D. in Physiology-Endocrinology from Université Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Physiology-Endocrinology, University Laval, 2012
- M.Sc. in Neuroscience, National Brain Research Centre, 2007
- B.Sc. in Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, 2005
Distinctions
- Trainee Professional Development Award, Society of Neuroscience, 2015
- John S. Spice Award in Aging / Distinguished Research Scientist, Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, 2017
- New Investigator Award in Alzheimer's Disease, American Federation for Aging Research, 2018
- Postdoctoral Training Fellowship, Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, 2015-2018
- Brain Star Award, Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) — Best PhD Work in Neuroscience, 2012
- Fellowship for Masters in Neuroscience, Department of Biotechnology, India, 2005-2007
- Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), 2007
- Best Young Neuroscientist of the Year Award and Best Platform Paper Presentation, Indian Academy of Cell Biology, 2007
- Brain Research Institute Award, UCLA, 2015
- Gold Medal (1st Position), Masters in Neuroscience, 2006
Areas of Expertise
- Neurodegeneration And Functional Genomics
- TDP-43 Pathology In ALS
- Alzheimer's Disease Proteomic Networks
- Autism Spectrum Transcriptomic Dysregulation
- Single-Nucleus Epigenomic Brain Profiling
- Spatial Multi-Omic Cell-Type Characterization
- Microglial Dysfunction In Dementia
Recent Publications
- Shi Z., Das S., Morabito S., Stocksdale J., Miyoshi E., Srinivasan S.S., Emerson N., Shahin A., Rahimzadeh N., Cao Z., Silva J., Castaneda A.A., Head E., Thompson L., Swarup V., “Single-nucleus multi-omics identifies shared and distinct pathways in Pick’s and Alzheimer’s disease” (opens in new tab), Science Advances, vol. 11, pp. 1-23, 2025.
- Rahimzadeh N, Srinivasan SS, Zhang J, Swarup V, “Gene networks and systems biology in Alzheimer's disease: Insights from multi-omics approaches” (opens in new tab), Alzheimer S and Dementia, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 3587-3605, 2024.
- Majumdar A, Siva Venkatesh IP, Swarup V, Basu A, “Short-chain fatty acids abrogate Japanese encephalitis virus-induced inflammation in microglial cells via miR-200a-3p/ZBTB20/IKβα axis” (opens in new tab), mBio, vol. 15, no. 7, pp. e0132124, 2024.
- Miyoshi E, Morabito S, Henningfield CM, Das S, Rahimzadeh N, Shabestari SK, Michael N, Emerson N, Reese F, Shi Z, Cao Z, Srinivasan SS, Scarfone VM, Arreola MA, Lu J, Wright S, Silva J, Leavy K, Lott IT, Doran E, et al., “Spatial and single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis of genetic and sporadic forms of Alzheimer's disease” (opens in new tab), Nature Genetics, vol. 56, no. 12, pp. 2704-2717, 2024.
- Emerson NE, Swarup V, “Proteomic Data Advance Targeted Drug Development for Neurodegenerative Diseases” (opens in new tab), Biological Psychiatry, vol. 93, no. 9, pp. 754-755, 2023.
- Barahona RA, Morabito S, Swarup V, Green KN, “Cortical diurnal rhythms remain intact with microglial depletion” (opens in new tab), Scientific Reports, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 114, 2022.
- Trubetskoy V, Pardiñas AF, Qi T, Panagiotaropoulou G, Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, “Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia” (opens in new tab), Nature, vol. 604, no. 7906, pp. 502-508, 2022.
- Shi Z, Das S, Morabito S, Miyoshi E, Swarup V, “Protocol for single-nucleus ATAC sequencing and bioinformatic analysis in frozen human brain tissue” (opens in new tab), STAR Protocols, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 101491, 2022.
- Adhya D, Swarup V, Nagy R, Dutan L, Shum C, Valencia-Alarcón EP, Jozwik KM, Mendez MA, Horder J, Loth E, Nowosiad P, Lee I, Skuse D, Flinter FA, Murphy D, McAlonan G, Geschwind DH, Price J, Carroll J, Srivastava DP, et al., “Atypical Neurogenesis in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells From Autistic Individuals” (opens in new tab), Biological Psychiatry, vol. 89, no. 5, pp. 486-496, 2021.
- Miyoshi E, Swarup V, “Rogue gene networks gone awry in Alzheimer's disease” (opens in new tab), Neural Regeneration Research, vol. 16, no. 12, pp. 2415-2416, 2021.
- Miyoshi E, Morabito S, Swarup V, “Systems biology approaches to unravel the molecular and genetic architecture of Alzheimer's disease and related tauopathies” (opens in new tab), Neurobiology of Disease, vol. 160, pp. 105530, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- Morabito S, Reese F, Rahimzadeh N, Miyoshi E, Swarup V, “hdWGCNA identifies co-expression networks in high-dimensional transcriptomics data” (opens in new tab), Cell Reports Methods, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 100498, 2023.
- Parikshak, N.N., Swarup, V, Belgard, T.G., Irimia, M., Ramaswami, G., Gandal, M.J., Hartl, C., Leppa, V., Ubieta, L.T.U., Huang, J., Lowe, J.K., Blencowe, B.J., Horvath, S., Geschwind, D.H., “Genome-wide changes in lncRNA, splicing and regional gene expression patterns in autism” (opens in new tab), Nature, vol. 540, no. 7633, pp. 423-427, 2016.
- Morabito S, Miyoshi E, Michael N, Shahin S, Martini AC, Head E, Silva J, Leavy K, Perez-Rosendahl M, Swarup V, “Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility and transcriptomic characterization of Alzheimer's disease” (opens in new tab), Nature Genetics, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 1143-1155, 2021.
- Swarup, V, Phaneuf, D., Dupré, N., Petri, S., Strong, M., Kriz, J., Julien, J.P., “Deregulation of TDP-43 in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis triggers nuclear factor κB-mediated pathogenic pathways” (opens in new tab), Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 208, no. 12, pp. 2429-2447, 2011.
- Swarup, V, Ghosh, J., Ghosh, S., Saxena, A., Basu, A., “Antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects of rosmarinic acid in an experimental murine model of Japanese encephalitis” (opens in new tab), Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, vol. 51, pp. 3367-3370, 2007.
- Lalancette-Hebert, M., Swarup, V, Beaulieu, J.M., Bohacek, I., Abdelhamid, E., Weng, Y.C., Sato, S., Kriz, J., “Galectin-3 is required for resident microglia activation and proliferation in response to ischemic injury” (opens in new tab), Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 32, no. 30, pp. 10383-10395, 2012.
- Swarup, V, Phaneuf, D., Bareil, C., Robertson, J., Rouleau, G.A., Kriz, J., Julien, J.P., “Pathological hallmarks of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal lobar degeneration in transgenic mice produced with TDP-43 genomic fragments” (opens in new tab), Brain, vol. 134, no. Pt 9, pp. 2610-2626, 2011.
- Swarup V, Hinz FI, Rexach JE, Noguchi KI, Toyoshiba H, Oda A, Hirai K, Sarkar A, Seyfried NT, Cheng C, Haggarty SJ, Grossman M, Van Deerlin VM, Trojanowski JQ, Lah JJ, Levey AI, Kondou S, Geschwind DH, “Identification of evolutionarily conserved gene networks mediating neurodegenerative dementia” (opens in new tab), Nature Medicine, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 152-164, 2019.
- Swarup, V, Ghosh, J., Mishra, M.K., Basu, A., “Novel strategy for treatment of Japanese encephalitis using arctigenin, a plant lignan” (opens in new tab), Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, vol. 61, pp. 679-688, 2008.
- Swarup, V, Das, S., Ghosh, S., Basu, A., “Tumor necrosis factor receptor-1-induced neuronal death by TRADD contributes to the pathogenesis of Japanese encephalitis” (opens in new tab), Journal of Neurochemistry, vol. 103, pp. 771-783, 2007.
Contact Information
Email: vivek.swarup@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-3182
Address: 3224 Biological Sciences III
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Last updated on 8/21/2026.