Emeran Mayer

Emeran Anton Mayer (born July 26, 1950 in Traunstein, Germany) is a Gastroenterologist, Lecturer, Author, Editor, Neuroscientist, Documentary Filmmaker and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology and Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA He is a pioneer of medical research into brain gut interactions

Early years

Mayer became interested in mind-brain-body interactions in health and chronic disease as a college student at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, which inspired his decision to go to medical school at Ludwig Maximilian University Medical School His interest in documentary filmmaking galvanized this fascination and resulted in his journeys to the Yanoama tribes in the Orinoco region, and the Asmat people in Irian Jaya. There, he filmed and studied native healers while exploring his suspicion that the interactions between the gut and the brain transcend culture and time.

Career

Mayer’s research career began at the Institute of Physiology in Munich, with a dissertation on the mechanisms by which the brain affects coronary blood flow in the heart during psychological stress. After moving to the US, he completed his specialty training as a gastroenterologist at UCLA and from then on focused his work on basic, translational, and clinical aspects of brain gut interactions. He has 30 years of experience studying clinical and neurobiological aspects of how the digestive and nervous systems interact in health and disease. In the United States Mayer found strong support from the U.S. government via National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.