Dr. Seeley is a neurologist with a special interest in neurodegenerative disease. He graduated from UCSF with an MD in 1999. He was a resident in Neurology at the Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals before returning to UCSF for a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology, with Bruce Miller, in 2003. He is currently a Professor of Neurology and Pathology at UCSF.

Dr. Seeley’s research interest regards how and why neurodegenerative diseases target specific neurons within specific brain regions. His laboratory focuses on frontotemporal dementia (FTD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. He and his colleagues showed that FTD targets a unique population of specialized neurons, called von Economo neurons, embedded within a brain system that supports social-emotional functioning. In addition, Dr. Seeley’s lab has helped to map the network architecture of the human brain and to show that each neurodegenerative disease targets a specific network, most likely by spreading via neuronal connections.

In 2011, Dr. Seeley was named a Fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He has also been named a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is the Founding Director of the UCSF Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank, which serves as a major catalyst for neurodegeneration research worldwide.