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

  • Neural Mechanisms of Poststroke Urinary Incontinence: Results From an fMRI Study. Stroke. 2025 Jun; 56(6):1516-1527.. View in PubMed
  • Repair, Regeneration, and Replacement, Revisited (Redux). J Diabetes Sci Technol. 2025 May; 19(3):605-610.. View in PubMed
  • Quantifying physical degradation alongside recording and stimulation performance of 980 intracortical microelectrodes chronically implanted in three humans for 956-2130 days. Acta Biomater. 2025 05 15; 198:188-206.. View in PubMed
  • Beta-band power modulation in the human amygdala during a delayed reach task. J Clin Neurosci. 2025 May; 135:111151.. View in PubMed
  • Cervical spinal cord stimulation for treatment of upper limb paralysis: a narrative review. J Hand Surg Eur Vol. 2025 06; 50(6):781-795.. View in PubMed
  • Portable six-channel laser speckle system for simultaneous measurement of cerebral blood flow and volume with potential applications in characterization of brain injury. Neurophotonics. 2025 Jan; 12(1):015003.. View in PubMed
  • Exploring the Feasibility of Bidirectional Spinal Cord Machine Interface Through Sensing and Stimulation of Axonal Bundles. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2025; 33:2004-2012.. View in PubMed
  • Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Detect Differences in Micturition-Related Brain Activity Between Volitional and Involuntary Detrusor Contractions. Neurourol Urodyn. 2025 Feb; 44(2):374-381.. View in PubMed
  • Association that Neuroimaging and Clinical Measures Have with Change in Arm Impairment in a Phase 3 Stroke Recovery Trial. Ann Neurol. 2025 04; 97(4):709-719.. View in PubMed
  • Human adult neurogenesis loss corresponds with cognitive decline during epilepsy progression. Cell Stem Cell. 2025 Feb 06; 32(2):293-301.e3.. View in PubMed