Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD

The development, evolution, and function of the human cerebral cortex.

Christopher A Walsh is Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr Walsh completed MD and PhD degrees at the University of Chicago, neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and postdoctoral training at Harvard in Genetics. He has held the Bullard Professorship since 1999 and joined Children’s Hospital as Chief of Genetics in 2006. His lab has identified genes for dozens of disorders affecting the human brain, causing autism, intellectual disability, epilepsy and other conditions. His lab also first described the extensive and dynamic genetic mosaicism of the human brain, and the role of mosaic mutations in pediatric and adult epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, normal aging, and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. His lab’s work has been recognized by his election to the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the American Association of Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and others. Among other honors, he has received a Jacob Javits Award from the NINDS, the Dreifuss-Penry Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Derek Denny-Brown and the Jacoby Awards from the American Neurological Association, the American Epilepsy Society’s Research Award, the Krieg Award from the Cajal Club, and the Wilder Penfield Award from the Middle Eastern Medical Assembly. He is an elected member of the American Neurological Association, the American Association of Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Award, the Gruber Neuroscience Award, and the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience.

Dr. Walsh is also Director of the Allen Discovery Center (ADC) for Human Brain Evolution at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The ADC brings together three six collaborating research laboratories to study the genetic, molecular and evolutionary forces that have given rise to the spectacular capacities of the human brain.

< BACK TO DIRECTORY