Seminar: Dr. Christopher Grunseich, Incoming NINDS Lasker Investigator

Dr. Christopher Grunseich completed his undergraduate studies at Brown University, and went on to receive his M.D. from SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine in 2006. While at SUNY Stony Brook, he completed an HHMI research fellowship year working in the laboratory of Dr. Gail Mandel. He then completed his medical internship at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and his residency training in neurology at Georgetown University. He is board certified in Neurology.  Dr. Grunseich joined Dr. Kenneth Fischbeck’s research group as a neurogenetics fellow in 2010, became a Staff Clinician in 2016, and will begin his Lasker investigator appointment at the beginning of 2024. Dr. Grunseich’s research focuses on clinical studies of patients with motor neuron disease and using patient-derived cell models to better understand the biology of motor neuron diseases, allowing for more precise design and targeting of candidate treatments for these diseases. Dr. Grunseich aims to have a better understanding of how changes in androgen receptor and R-loop biology are linked to degeneration and identify new targets for therapeutic development. Related publications:

• Guber RD, Kokkinis AD, Schindler AB, Bendixen RM, Heatwole CR, Fischbeck KH, Grunseich C. Patient-identified impact of symptoms in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. Muscle Nerve 2018;57:40-44.
• Grunseich C, Patankar A, Amaya J, Watts JA, Li D, Ramirez P, Schindler AB, Fischbeck KH, Cheung VG. Clinical and molecular aspects of senataxin mutations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 4. Ann Neurol 2020;87:547-555.
• Grunseich C, Wang IX, Watts JA, Guber RD, Burdick JT, Zhu Z, Bruzel A, Lanman T, Chen K, Schindler AB, Edwards N, Ray-Chaudhury A, Yao J, Lehky T, Piszczek G, Crain B, Fischbeck KH, Cheung VG. Senataxin mutation reveals how R-loops promote transcription by blocking DNA methylation at gene promoters. Mol Cell 2018;24:313-325.