Physician Investigator (Cl) Neurology, Mass General Research Institute

Instructor in Neurology Harvard Medical School

Assistant In Neurology Massachusetts General Hospital

M.D.; Ph.D. Baylor College of Medicine 2014

anti-epileptic drug development; epilepsy; epilepsy genetics; myoclonic astatic epilepsy Chris McGraw MD, PhD is a physician-scientist with an interest in epilepsy genetics and the use of animal models to better understand a variety of epilepsy disorders and to identify novel treatments.

Dr. McGraw received his BA in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, magna cum laude, at Rice University in 2004 and he completed a combined MD/PhD program at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), earning a PhD in Developmental Biology under Dr. Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD in 2012 before graduating in 2014. He completed residency in Adult Neurology at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he received a competitive R25 award to study epilepsy in zebrafish with Dr. Scott Baraban PhD. He completed an Adult Epilepsy Fellowship at Mass General in 2020, and now joins the Herscot Center as an Adult Epileptologist. He continues to pursue basic science research in zebrafish through the Epilepsy Genetics Program at Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) with Dr. Ann Poduri, MD, MPH. Dr. McGraw is site PI for the Epilepsy Learning Healthcare System (ELHS) at Mass General, a multi-center initiative to improve the quality of care for patients with epilepsy.

His work is supported by an NINDS K08 Career Development Award to develop a zebrafish model of myoclonic astatic epilepsy due to mutations in SLC6A1 and to develop an in vitro assay for positive modulators of SLC6A1. He is also supported by a CURE Taking Flight Award to identify modifiers of seizure susceptibility in zebrafish as targets for novel anti-epileptic drug development.