Dr. DeCarli is the director of UC Davis Health's Alzheimer’s Disease Center, a National Institutes of Health-funded Alzheimer’s research center. He is also Director of the Imaging of Dementia and Aging (IDeA) laboratory.

His clinical care focuses on the diagnosis and initial management of individuals with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

Dr. DeCarli's research focuses on using advanced structural and functional brain imaging to study normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia, and the role of genetics, cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease on these processes.

Dr. DeCarli is one of the champions of the Healthy Brain Aging Initiative, which seeks to advance novel approaches to optimize brain health from birth.