Christopher A. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D.
Distinguished Investigator

Christopher Walsh is Bullard Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Genetics at Children's Hospital Boston, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. After graduating from Bucknell University with a B.S. degree in Chemistry, he completed the M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Chicago, a neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in genetics at Harvard Medical School. After establishing his own lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 1993, he undertook the analysis of developmental disorders of the human cerebral cortex, identifying—either alone or collaboratively-- more than a dozen genes mutated in human developmental brain disorders. Mutations in these genes cause childhood brain diseases such as mental retardation, epilepsy, and autism. Identification of these genes has provided new diagnostic tests for patients and parents at risk. Dr. Walsh has also pioneered the study of these genes to provide mechanistic insights into human cerebral cortex development and function. Finally, he discovered that some genes that are mutated in human developmental brain disorders—including AHI1 and ASPM--were targets of the evolutionary processes that distinguished humans from our primate ancestors. He has been deeply involved in medical and graduate education, and from 2003-2007 he was Director of the Harvard-MIT Combined MD-PhD training program. Among his awards are a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Research Award from the American Epilepsy Society, the Dreifuss-Penry Award from the American Academy of Neurology, and the Derek Denny-Brown award and Jacoby awards from the American Neurological Association.

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