Charles Liu, MD, PhD

Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery, Surgery, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences and Biomedical Engineering

Director, USC Neurorestoration Center

USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering

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Overview

Dr. Liu completed his undergraduate education in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and went on to receive his PhD in Chemical/Biomedical Engineering at Rice University. He then attended the Yale University School of Medicine, receiving his MD degree. He trained in neurosurgery at the University of Southern California Affiliated Hospitals.

He is presently professor of neurosurgery and neurology and holds the Apuzzo Professorship for Advanced Neurosurgery. He is also Director of the USC Center for Neurorestoration, which functions to bring scientific advances in the laboratory and engineers new tools to restore function to the injured and diseased nervous system. He also serves as the Surgical Director of the USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, one of the premier and highest volume surgical epilepsy programs in the world.

He has received numerous research awards and made a large number of visitorships/invited lectures throughout the world. He also serves as Associate Editor of the journal, WORLD NEUROSURGERY. He is a principal neurosurgical consultant for the NCAA USC Trojans Athletics Department. In addition, he serves on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. At Rancho los Amigos, Dr. Liu is Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and is developing cutting-edge programs in restorative neurosurgery, collaborating with scientists at Caltech and USC, among others.

Awards

  • Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.: Top Doctor, 2015
  • Castle Connolly Medical Ltd: Top Doctor, 2011

Publications

  • Significant seizure frequency reduction in a patient with refractory bitemporal epilepsy following transition from high-frequency to low-frequency responsive neurostimulation. Epilepsy Behav Rep. 2025 Dec; 32:100822.. View in PubMed
  • Human spinal cord activation during filling and emptying of the bladder. Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 15; 16(1):6506.. View in PubMed
  • Distributed Temporal Coding of Visual Memory Categories in Human Hippocampal Neurons Revealed by an Interpretable Decoding Model. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2025 Oct; 12(38):e02047.. View in PubMed
  • Beta-band desynchronization in the human hippocampus during movement preparation in a delayed reach task. Exp Brain Res. 2025 Jun 23; 243(7):180.. View in PubMed
  • Comparative evaluation of image registration techniques in functional ultrasound imaging. Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2025; 3.. View in PubMed
  • The challenges in establishing and Upholding an adult Level III epilepsy center in an underserved area in the United states. Epilepsy Behav Rep. 2025 Sep; 31:100779.. View in PubMed
  • Beta-band power modulation in the human amygdala during a Direct Reach arm reaching task. Neurosci Res. 2025 Jul; 216:104906.. View in PubMed
  • Long-Term Outcomes of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired With Upper Extremity Rehabilitation After Stroke. Stroke. 2025 Aug; 56(8):2255-2265.. View in PubMed
  • Successful treatment of super-refractory focal status epilepticus: Surgery, vagus nerve stimulation, and botox for epilepsia partialis continua. Epilepsy Behav Rep. 2025 Sep; 31:100775.. View in PubMed
  • Rotational ultrasound and photoacoustic tomography of the human body. ArXiv. 2025 Apr 22.. View in PubMed