Understanding biology through structure and computation has been David Eisenberg’s career-long interest. Starting with computation and x-ray diffraction, he later added the tools of TEM, and more recently micro-electron diffraction and cryoEM.  He has focused increasingly on proteins associated with amyloid and prion diseases. These are diseases of protein oligomerization and fibrillation. By newly developed methods of microcrystallography and microelectron diffraction, his lab has been able to determine the atomic structures of some 200 of disease related fibril structures and determined structures of four amyloid fibrils by cryoEM.

He has coauthored ~400 research papers, two books: a monograph on the structure and properties of water still in print, and a text on physical chemistry for the life sciences.

He established and directed a user-friendly facility for determination of atomic structures by x-ray and EM methods which has welcomed and helped scores of users from UCLA, other research institutions and industry.