Division of Genetics & Genomics
People
Principal Investigator
Christopher A. Walsh, MD, PhD
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Center;
Chief, Division of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children’s Hospital; Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Director, Allen Discovery Center for Human Brain Evolution
The Evolution of a Neuroscientist
The seventh of eight children of a Catholic, Norwegian-Irish-American family. Christopher A. Walsh was born and raised in Cranford, New Jersey.
He was the first member of his family not to attend Catholic schools, graduating from the Pingry School. He studied chemistry at Bucknell University, where physiological psychology research led him to discover neuroscience.
He completed a combined MD/PhD training program at the University of Chicago. His PhD thesis, with Rainer Guillery, studied the development of connections between the retina and the brain, during which he spent a year as a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst fellow at the Max-Planck Institute in Frankfurt, Germany with Wolf Singer and Heinz Wässle.
He then moved to Boston for medical internship, neurology residency and chief residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During and after residency, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Harvard Medical School Genetics Department with Connie Cepko, where he published the first studies of cell lineage and neuronal migration in the cerebral cortex using retroviral vectors, and then developed the first retroviral libraries with “DNA barcodes” that allow lineages to be traced independent of patterns of migration and intermingling of clones.
Dr. Walsh established his laboratory in 1993. Read more about the evolution of his research in the Science section of this website. >
Current Lab Members
Post-Doctoral Fellows >
R Andersen | W Choi | E Caglayan | K Essuman | D Exposito-Alonso | A Kriz | A Li | A Mo | D Shao | D Snellings | J Song | X Qian | Z Zhou
Lab Staff >
E Bushinsky | C Cambridge |M Chin |H Cline | U Ghosh | E Goodman | R Hill | A Lai | M Manam | J Neil | C Prasad | A Yang |
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Rebecca Andersen, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Becky received her PhD in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology from UCSF in 2019. Her primary focus is on understanding how lncRNAs regulate human brain development and how their disruption can contribute to neuro-developmental disorders.
William Choi, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
William received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. TX, and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. He is a clinical fellow in the Harvard Genetics Training Program. He joined the Walsh lab in 2023 as a postdoctoral fellow interested in somatic mutations that arise in human neural development.
Emre Caglayan, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Emre received his PhD in Neuroscience from UTSW in 2023. His main focus in the Walsh lab is to discover brain somatic mutation patterns across human and non-human primate species to study their role in human brain evolution and disease.
Kow Essuman, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Kow received his M.D. and Ph.D degrees from Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, and is currently a Neurosurgery Resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. As post-doctoral fellow in the Walsh lab, Kow is interested in better understanding somatic mutations in the normal human brain and in Neurofibromatosis, and how these mutations drive brain tumor growth
David Exposito-Alonso, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
David received his PhD in Neuroscience from King’s College London and joined the lab in 2021. His PhD work focused on molecular mechanisms regulating synaptic connectivity in the cerebral cortex. In the Walsh Lab, David is interested in investigating the functional impact of mutations associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in the assembly of cortical circuits.
Email >
Andrea Kriz, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Andrea received her PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard and joined the lab in 2021. She aims to investigate sex differences in autism at the epigenetic level.
Alice Li, MD/PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Alice received her MD and PhD from Yale University School of Medicine, and recently completed her residency and fellowship in Pathology and Neuropathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. She is interested in applying single cell biological techniques to better understand the role of glial cells in human brain health and disease.
Alisa Mo, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Alisa received her M.D., Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland and is currently a Child Neurology resident at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is interested in better understanding the genetic and epigenetic basis of neurodevelopmental diseases, with a particular focus on defects in chromatin-related genes.
Diane Shao, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Diane is a postdoctoral fellow in the Walsh lab and clinical pediatric neurologist. Her interests are in novel methods for gene discovery in pediatric neurogenetic disorders, and applying single cell technology to identify and track somatic mutations that arise during brain development.
Daniel Snellings, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dan received his PhD in Molecular Genetics from Duke University in 2022. He is interested in studying somatic variation in repetitive regions of the genome and developing methods for high-resolution reconstruction of cellular phylogenies from human tissue.
Janet Song, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Janet is a postdoctoral fellow in the Walsh lab. She is interested in using high-throughput genomic and transcriptomic approaches to gain a functional understanding of human brain evolution.
Xuyu Qian, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Xuyu Qian received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. His PhD work in the laboratory of Dr. Hongjun Song focused on developing methodologies for generating human induced-pluripotent stem cell-derived brain organoids as models for human brain development. In the Walsh Lab, Xuyu is interested in applying the brain organoid system to understanding the developmental mechanisms underlying human brain evolution and disorders.
Zinan Zhou, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Zinan’s research interest is to investigate relationships between somatic mutations in human brains and neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. He’s also interested in studying somatic mutations in heart aging and related disease conditions.
Graduate Students
Irene Antony
MD/PhD Candidate
Irene is an MD-PhD candidate in the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program, with her MD through the HST track and PhD through the Program in Neuroscience (PiN). She joined the lab in 2023. For her PhD research, she is interested in studying early neurodevelopment and how genetic and epigenetic perturbations interact to cause intellectual disability and related neurological disorders.
Liz Enyenihi
PhD Candidate
Liz is an MD-PhD student (HST) who joined the lab in 2023. Her undergrad research focused on functional characterization of rare germline variants, and she is now interested in studying genetic changes that occur during development and through the lifespan.
Ben Finander
PhD Candidate
Ben Finander is a PhD student in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) Program at Harvard. Ben joined the lab in 2022 to study how both germline and somatic mutations can impact neurodevelopment using a combination of wet lab and dry lab techniques.
Norma Hylton
MD/PhD Candidate
Norma is an MD-PhD in the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program and she joined the Walsh lab in 2020. During her undergrad, she studied patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell models to investigate neuropharmacology and development and is interested in studying cortical development and how it goes awry in the context of genetic diseases and environmental insults.
Maya Talukdar
PhD Candidate
Lucy Zhao
PhD Candidate
Colleagues
Ming Hui Chen
Principal Investigator
Dr. Ming Hui Chen is Associate Professor of Pediatrics. She has expertise in the cardiac manifestations of genetic brain disorders and directs a clinic for children and families with periventricular nodular heterotopia and FilaminA disease, along with a Cardiovascular Health Program for Cancer Survivors.
Sangita Choudhury, PhD
Principal Investigator
Sangita Choudhury, PhD. joined the lab in July 2016, as a research scientist. Her primary research interest in the Walsh lab is to investigate the genetics of human disease from a translational veiwpoint by combining her expertise in clinical medicine, basic biology, and bioinformatics.
August Yue Huang, PhD
Principle Investigator
Dr. Huang is a computational biologist and faculty member at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His laboratory is interested in studying the genomic characteristics of somatic mutations during development and aging, as well as their pathogenic contributions to human diseases.
Michael Miller, MD, PhD
Principle Investigator
Dr. Miller is a neuropathologist and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who is also on faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Miller’s laboratory is interested in the role of somatic mutation and the single-cell biology of neurodegenerative diseases, and collaborates with the Walsh lab in the area of neuropathology and somatic mutation biology.
Lab Staff
Evan Bushinsky
Research Assistant
Evan graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in Environmental Health in the spring of 2022. He joined the lab in late March 2023.
Christie Cambridge
Research Assistant
Christie graduated from Howard University in 2024 with an honors BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. She joined the Walsh lab in July 2024. She is interested in studying genetic disorders impacting neurodevelopment.
Monique Chin
Administrative Coordinator
Monique joined the lab in 2020. She works as the administrative support for the Principle Investigator and Boston Children’s Hospital Chief of Genetics and Genomics, Dr. Christopher Walsh.
Email >
Hayley Cline
Research Assistant
Hayley graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2024 with a BA in biochemistry and a minor in statistics. She joined the lab shortly after in July 2024.
Urmi Ghosh
Research Assistant
Urmi graduated from the University of Delaware in 2022 with an honors BS in Neuroscience and minored in Biology. She joined the Walsh lab at the start of December in 2022. Her research interests include neurological and neurodegenerative disorders and their relationship with somatic and copy number variants.
Email >
Eitan Goodman
Research Assistant
Eitan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2023 with a BA in Neuroscience and joined the Walsh lab that Sepember. He takes interest in the genetic basis of developmental neurodegenerative disorders.
Email >
Robert Sean Hill, PhD
Lab Director
Sean joined the lab in 2001. He obtained his PhD in molecular genetics and evolution under the guidance of Ann Bucklin at the University of New Hampshire. In the Walsh Lab, he oversees human genetic sequencing and mapping projects, and bioinformatic efforts.
Abbe Lai, MS, CGC
Research Coordinator, Genetic Counselor
Abbe joined the lab in 2017. She provides clinical genetic counseling in the Brain Development and Genetics Clinic. She helps manage participation into research at the Walsh Lab and works on gene discovery projects.
Ishaan Lamba
Research Assistant
Ishaan graduated from Northeastern University in 2024 with a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience. He joined the lab in August 2024 and is interested in researching the role of brain evolution in somatic mutagenesis.
Monica Devi Manam
Senior Bioinformatician
Monica is a Senior Bioinformatician, who joined the lab in June 2023. Prior to this, She worked on Tumor-Normal matched testing for Oncopanel at Dana Farber & Mass General Brigham’s – CAMD. At the Walsh Lab, She is interested in understanding somatic mutations and their effects in Neurogenetics
Jennifer E. Neil, MS, CGC
Research Coordinator, Genetic Counselor
Jen manages human subject protocols and activities, including international collaborations, and exome sequencing and variant interpretation for gene discovery projects.
Catherine Prasad
Research Assistant
Catherine joined the lab in August 2023 after graduating from UMass Amherst with a B.S in psychology and neuroscience. Her research interests lie in understanding the mechanisms that characterize gene mutations in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Lab Alumni
Ellen DeGennaro, PhD (2023-2024)
Taehwan Shin, PhD (2022-2022) > Novartis
Javier Ganz, PhD (2016-2022) > Merck
Sonia Kim, PhD (2021-2022) > Stanford University
Sara Bizzotto, PhD (2016-2021) > Paris Brain Institute, Sorbonne University
Marc Beaudin, PhD (2020-2021)
Caroline Dias, MD, PhD (2016-2021) > Assistant Professor, Children’s Hospital Colorado
Almundher Al-Maawali, MD (2013-2015) > Geneticist, Sultan Qaboos University
Manal Alaamery, PhD (2010-2013) > Chairman and Department Head, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center
Kristina Allen, PhD (1993-1998) > Director, Vaccines Business Unit, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Byoung-II Bae, PhD (2006-2015) > Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, UConn Health
Andrew Baltus, PhD (2006-2011) > Chief Operating Officer, Addgene
Maria Chahrour, MS, PhD (2009-2014) > Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Bernard Chang, MD (2002-2004) > Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Chief of Division of Epilepsy, BIDMC
Allen Chen, MD, PhD (2014-2018) > Medical Resident
Xi Chen, MD, PhD (2008-2010) > Assistant Professor of Opthamology, Duke University
Anjen Chenn, MD, PhD (1999-2002) > Associate Professor
Joseph C. Corbo, MD, PhD (1999-2002) > Associate Professor
Dwight Cordero, MD (2006-2010) > Associate Physician
Ryan Doan, PhD (2013-2019) > Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Principal Investigator, Boston Children’s Hospital
Noelle Dwyer, PhD (2002-2007) > Associate Professor and Principal Investigator, University of Virginia
Yaman Eksioglu, MD, PhD (1994-1997) > Associate Professor, Emory University School of Medicine
Yuanyi Feng, PhD (1997-2006) > Associate Professor, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Russell Ferland, PhD (2000-2005) > Professor and Chair of Biomedical Sciences, University of New England
Ying Geng, MD (2013-2014) > Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
Ed Gilmore, MD, PhD (2006-2011) > Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Joseph G. Gleeson, MD (1995-1999) > Professor and Principal Investigator, UC San Diego School of Medicine
Anthony Hill, PhD (2001-2010) > Research Fellow, DKFZ German Cancer Research Center
Saumya Jamuar, MBBS, MRCPCH (2012-2014) > Head, SingHealth Duke-NUS Genomic Medicine Center; CSO, Global Gene Corp
Matthew B. Johnson, PhD (2010-2017) > Staff Scientist, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute
Seonhee Kim, PhD (2000-2007) > Associate Professor, Temple University, Lewis Katz School of Medicine
Jeehun Lee, MD, PhD (2013-2014) > Professor, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine
Maria Lehtinen, PhD (2007-2011) > Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Principal Investigator, Boston Children’s Hospital
Pengpeng Li, PhD (2016-2019) > Associate, 5AM Venutures
Judy Liu, MD, PhD (2003-2010) > Associate Professor and Principal Investigator, Brown University
Sofia B. Lizarraga, PhD (2003-2010) > Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, University of South Carolina
Michael Lodato, PhD (2012-2019) > Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Chiara Manzini, PhD (2006-2013) > Associate Professor, Child Health Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers-RBHS
Christine Marshall-Walker, PhD (2005-2008) > Instructor in Biology, Phillips Academy
Ganeshwaran H. Mochida, MD (1999-2008) > Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Principal Investigator, Boston Children’s Hospital
Edwin S. Monuki, MD, PhD (1998-2001) > Warren L. Bostick Professor and Chair, Pathology, UC Irving School of Medicine
Eric Morrow, MD, PhD (2004-2009) > Mencoff Family Professor of Biology, Brown University
Marta Nieto Lopez, PhD (2000-2004) > Assistant Professor
Eric Olson, PhD (1997-2003) > Associate Professor
Xianhua Piao, MD, PhD (2000-2005) > Professor, UC San Francisco
Annapurna Poduri, MD, MPH (2004-2012) > Professor, Harvard Medical School; Principal Investigator, Boston Children’s Hospital
Mohamed A. Sabry, PhD (1998-2000) > Associate Professor
Christian R. Schubert, PhD (2009-2011) > Entrepreneur In Residence, Atlas Venture
Sema Sgaier, PhD (2006-2007) > Co-Founder & CEO, Surgo Ventures; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Volney Sheen, MD, PhD (2000-2005) > Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Principal Investigator, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Tao Sun, PhD (2002-2005) > Associate Professor, Cornell University Weill Medical College
Ian Tietjen, PhD (2003-2006) > Research Assistant Professor, The Wistar Institute
Jessica Tsai, MD, PhD > Instructor, Harvard Medical School; Attending Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital
Mollie Woodworth, PhD (2013-2016) > Instructor, Stanford University; Adjunct Professor, Cañada College
Seung-Yun Yoo, PhD (2003-2007) > Global Sales Strategy Team Leader, Samsung Biologics
Tim W. Yu, MD, PhD (2007-2013) > Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Principal Investigator, Boston Children’s Hospital
Xiaochang Zhang, PhD (2011-2017) > Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, The University of Chicago
PhD Thesis Students
Chanthia Ma, PhD (2021-2024)
Ellen DeGennaro, PhD (2019-2023)
Shyam Akula, MD, PhD (2019-2022)
Eduardo Maury, PhD (2017-2022)
Taehwan Shin, PhD (2017-2022) > Scientist, Walsh Lab Postdoctoral Fellow
Rebeca Borges Monroy, PhD (2017-2021) > Scientist, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Xuyu Cai, PhD (2010-2013) > Scientist, Illumina, Inc.
Teresa H. Chae, MD, PhD (1998-2002) > Ophthalmologist, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic
Michael Coulter, MD, PhD (2009-2018) > Postdoctoral Fellow, UC San Francisco
Sophie Currier, MD, PhD (2000-2004) > Psychiatrist, Aylesbury Oxford Trust at NHS
Thomas A. Deuel, MD, PhD (2000-2004) > Neurologist, Swedish Medical Center; Acting Assistant Professor, University of Washington
Gilad Evrony, MD, PhD (2009-2013) > Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, NYU Langone Health
Wen Fan Hu, MD, PhD (2010-2014) > Ophthalmologist, University of Utah
Jeremy Fox, PhD (1995-1999) > Managing Director
Vijay Ganesh, MD, PhD (2007-2012) > Instructor in Neurology, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Kelly Girskis, PhD (2015-2019) > Research Analyst, Tekla Capital Management
Jorge Gonzalez, PhD (1994-1999) > Executive Vice President
Divya Jayaraman, MD, PhD (2010-2015) > Resident Doctor, Boston Children’s Hospital
Jason B. Neal, MD, PhD (2003-2010) > Postdoctoral Residency Fellow
Christopher B. Reid, MD, PhD (1993-1997)
Rachel Rodin, MD, PhD > Resident in Neurology, Mass General Brigham, Harvard Medical School
Jun Shen, PhD (1999-2004) > Assistant Professor of Pathology, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Peter Wang, PhD (2010-2016)
Marcus Ware, MD, PhD (1995-1998) > Assistant Professor
Jenny (Yawei) Yang, MD, PhD (2007-2013) > Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
Mauro Zappaterra, MD, PhD (2005-2010) > Director of Multidisciplinary Care, Synovation Medical Group
Graduate/Medical Students
Donna Eilberg, MS (1998-2000)
Nicholai Henry, (2016-2017)
Rebeca Borges Monroy, MD/PhD (2016-2021)
Lab Staff
Kutay Deniz Atabay > PhD Candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brenda Barry, MS, CGC > Research Coordinator/Genetic Counselor, Boston Children’s Hospital
Adria Bodell, MS > Science Teacher
Paula Delerme, MS, CGC > Clinical Genetic Counselor, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Kira A. Dies, ScM, CGC > Program Manager
Chloe Egan
Princess Christina Elhosary > Student, Case Western Reserve University, School of Dental Medicine
Jillian Felie > Registered Nurse, Boston Children’s Hospital
Nicole Hatem > Nursing Student, Thomas Jefferson University
Haley Hill Gardiner > Genetic Counselor
Benjamin Hills > MD, PhD Candidate at Dartmouth College
Amer Hossain > PhD Candidate at The Rockefeller University
Laura Isacco, Research Technician
Stacy Kamumbu > Medical Student at Case Western Reserve University
Connor Kenny > PhD Candidate
Christina Kourkoulis > Lab Manager, Massachusetts General Hospital
Mark LaCoursiere > Research Technician , Boston Children’s Hospital
Anh-Thu Lam > PhD Candidate, Johns Hopkins University
Bhaven Mehta, MA > PhD Candidate, Dartmouth College
Katherine Morillo >PhD Candidate, Princeton
Lariza Rento, Research Technician
Raheel Rizwan, MD, Clinical Research Specialist
Jacqueline Rodriguez, Research Technician
Aldo Rozzo, DVM, PhD, Lab Manager
Steven Ryu > PhD Candidate
Klaus Schmitz-Abe, PhD, Staff Scientist
Gabrielle Sejourne > PhD Candidate
Sarah Servattalab > Medical Student, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Caroleen S. Smiley > Sr. Administrative Associate
Christine Sunu > Medical Student, Yale School of Medicine
Allison Sussman, MPH > Registered Nurse
Dovie Watson, MD > Physician, Internal Medicine
Suet Yip, Administrative Associate
Lariza Rento, Research Assistant
Samantha Kirkham, Research Assistant
Katherine O’Kane, Research Assistant
Samantha Beck, Research Assistant
Yasmine Chahine, Research Assistant
Jack Marciano, Research Assistant
Brian Chhouk, Research Assistant
Muna Al Saffar, Genetic Counselor
Dilenny Gonzalez, Lab Manager
If you are a Walsh Lab alumnus and would like to be included on this page, please contact us!