headshot of Lisa Barcellos

Research Bio

Lisa F. Barcellos is a Professor of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, Faculty Member in the Center for Computational Biology, Director of the Genetic Epidemiology and Genomics Core Laboratory, and the Director of Undergraduate Public Health Major Program. She is a genetic epidemiologist specializing in diseases of the immune system and is working to identify genetic, environmental and epigenetic factors that predispose people to autoimmune diseases and that modulate disease expression and clinical progression. Her research is also focused on the relationship between environmental exposures and changes to the human epigenome that influence health outcomes. 

Much of her research, to date, has centered on multiple sclerosis (MS), and has involved collaborations with other scientists at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Southern California and UC San Francisco Department of Neurology. She and colleagues at the NIH/ National Genome Research Institute and UC San Francisco are also leading studies focused on Sjogren's Disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, Professor Barcellos and colleagues at Stanford University and Sonoma Technology, Inc., are researching the effects of wildfire smoke exposure on the epigenome and other health outcomes including COVID-19.

Lisa Barcellos received her PhD in Immunology (emphasis Immunogenetics)and MPH in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow in genetic epidemiology and biostatistics and was a faculty member at UC San Francisco, Department of Neurology. 

Research Expertise and Interest

public health, genetic epidemiology, human genetics, autoimmune diseases, Sjogren's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, epigenetics, genomics, computational biology

In the News

Featured in the Media

Please note: The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of UC Berkeley.
May 8, 2020

UC Berkeley scientists launch new coronavirus antibody test

KTVU
Jana Katsuyama
Dr. Eva Harris, a public health professor specializing in infectious diseases and vaccinology and Dr. Lisa Barcellos, a public health professor specializing in epidemiology and biostatistics, are co-leading an extensive study of the Bay Area's exposure to the virus to see how widespread it has been and for how long. On this program, they discuss their strategy, which includes a mailed questionnaire, followed up with testing. Dr. Harris says they've mailed 307,000 invitations to participate in the study to "every single home, every household in the census track in 11 cities." Dr. Barcellos says: "We're asking all about current symptoms, past symptoms and going back as far as December. We're asking about travel histories. We're asking about who's in the household and what they've been exposed to." From the respondents, 5,000 to 6,000 will be selected randomly to participate in the testing phase. "The in-home collection kits include all the materials that someone needs to collect saliva, as well as an oral and nasal swab," Dr. Barcellos says. "It's really very straightforward and doesn't hurt at all," Dr. Harris adds. Link to video. Read more about the study at Berkeley's School of Public Health.
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April 17, 2020

Coronavirus tests for 5,000 healthy East Bay volunteers. Could that be you?

Mercury News
Lisa M. Krieger
A new Berkeley initiative, set to begin in early May and possibly continuing through the year, will test a large and representative sample of healthy East Bay residents to see if they have been exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus. The tests will solicit saliva, swab and blood samples from volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60. The initiative addresses one of the key challenges faced in lifting physical distancing policies, since it's critical to know the full extent of viral spread with a disease that may be carried and spread by infected people without symptoms. "We're very excited about this ... We're going to follow people over time," says Dr. Eva Harris, a public health professor specializing in infectious diseases and vaccinology who is co-leading the project. Dr. Lisa Barcellos, a public health professor specializing in epidemiology and biostatistics, is co-leading the team. She says: "Our research is the first study in the Bay Area to identify and test a large, representative population of asymptomatic individuals, which will provide much-needed insight into transmission dynamics, the true extent of the community spread, and risk factors for infection beyond those tested for COVID-19 at hospitals and clinics." Other stories on this topic appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Chronicle Online. For more on this, see this story at the School of Public Health.
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