Emeran Mayer

Emeran Mayer, MD, is a gastroenterologist, neuroscientist, and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA, where he directs the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress & Resilience and is the Founding Director of the Goodman Luskin Microbiome Center. He has studied the brain-gut-microbiome system for more than 45 years.

He has published 450 scientific papers with an h-index of 138. He is the author of the best-sellers, The Mind-Gut Connection (2016) and The Mind-Gut Immune Connection (2021), the recipe book Interconnected Plates (2023), and The Mayer Model (2026), a systems-science lifestyle framework that organizes brain-gut health around seven interconnected pillars: food, exercise, mindfulness, resilience, community, purpose, and sleep.

A pioneer in brain-gut-microbiome interactions, chronic visceral pain, and functional gut disorders, he received the 2016 Paul D. MacLean Award. His work has been featured on NPR, PBS, MasterClass, and in the New York Times. He lives in Los Angeles.