Dr. Christopher Walsh is a distinguished leader in the field of neurogenetics and human brain development research. He currently serves as the 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 at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Walsh earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Bucknell University in 1978 before completing a combined MD/PhD program at the University of Chicago, where he studied under Rainer Guillery. Following his neurology residency and chief residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, he conducted postdoctoral research in genetics at Harvard Medical School with Connie Cepko, establishing the foundation for his pioneering work on cerebral cortex development.
Dr. Walsh has revolutionized our understanding of human cortical development through innovative worldwide collaborations that have identified genetic causes for more than thirty brain disorders affecting children. His laboratory's groundbreaking research has uncovered the genetic basis for conditions associated with autism, intellectual disability, seizures, and cerebral palsy, transforming diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for these developmental disorders. Notably, his work revealed that certain disease genes represent important targets of evolutionary processes that shaped the human brain, bridging the fields of evolutionary biology and medical genetics. Dr. Walsh's team has also characterized the neuronal genome at the single-cell level, demonstrating that distinctive mutation patterns in each neuron reflect developmental origin and aging effects, providing unprecedented insights into brain development.
As Director of the Allen Discovery Center for Human Brain Evolution, Dr. Walsh leads a collaborative initiative uniting multiple research laboratories to investigate the genetic and molecular forces behind human brain capabilities. His leadership extends to mentoring numerous graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have established successful careers in neuroscience and genetics, significantly expanding the field's capacity. Dr. Walsh's transformative contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, the Gruber Prize in Neuroscience in 2021, and the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2022. Currently, his laboratory continues to explore the intersection of human brain evolution, development, and disease, with ongoing research promising to further illuminate the genetic architecture underlying human cognition and neurological disorders.
