Karl Deisseroth

Karl Deisseroth

Psychiatrist


D. H. Chen Professor, Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

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Additional Languages Spoken:
Spanish

Biography


Karl Deisseroth is the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard, his PhD from Stanford, and his MD from Stanford. He also completed postdoctoral training, medical internship, and adult psychiatry residency at Stanford, and he is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He continues as a practicing psychiatrist at Stanford with specialization in affective disorders and autism-spectrum disease, employing medications along with neural stimulation.

Over the last sixteen years, his laboratory created and developed optogenetics, hydrogel-tissue chemistry (beginning with CLARITY), and a broad range of enabling methods. He also has employed his technologies to discover the neural cell types and connections that cause adaptive and maladaptive behaviors, and has disseminated the technologies to thousands of laboratories around the world.

Among other honors, Deisseroth was the sole recipient for optogenetics of the 2010 Koetser Prize, the 2010 Nakasone Prize, the 2011 Alden Spencer Prize, the 2013 Richard Lounsbery Prize, the 2014 Dickson Prize in Science, the 2015 Keio Prize, the 2015 Lurie Prize, the 2015 Albany Prize, the 2015 Dickson Prize in Medicine, the 2017 Redelsheimer Prize, the 2017 Fresenius Prize, the 2017 NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award, the 2018 Eisenberg Prize, the 2018 Kyoto Prize, the 2020 Heineken Prize in Medicine from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2023 Japan Prize. For his discoveries, Deisseroth has also received the Perl Prize (2012), the BRAIN prize (2013), the Pasarow Prize (2013), the Breakthrough Prize (2015) the BBVA Award (2016), the Massry Prize (2016) and the Harvey Prize from the Technion/Israel (2017). He was selected a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2013, and was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine in 2010, to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2019.

Professional Summary


Education & Certifications
  • Medical Education: Stanford University School of Medicine (2000) CA
  • Residency: Stanford University Adult Psychiatry Residency (2004) CA
  • Internship: Stanford University Adult Psychiatry Residency (2001) CA
  • Board Certification: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Psychiatry (2006)
  • Ph.D., Stanford University, Neuroscience (1998)
  • M.D., Stanford University (2000)
  • A.B., Harvard, Biochemical Sciences (1992)

Honors & Awards
  • Albany Prize in Medicine, for optogenetics (2015)
  • Ariëns Kappers Award, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020)
  • BBVA Award, for optogenetics (2016)
  • Berthold Leibinger Prize, for development of optogenetics (2018)
  • BRAIN Prize, Lundbeck Research Foundation (2013)
  • Breakthrough Prize in Life Science, for optogenetics (2015)
  • Culpeper Scholar Award, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Goldman Philanthropic Partnerships (2004)
  • Dickson Prize in Medicine, for optogenetics (2015)
  • Dickson Prize in Science, for optogenetics (2014)
  • Director's Pioneer Award, National Institutes of Health (2005)
  • Early Career Translational Research Award, Coulter Foundation (2005)
  • Eisenberg Prize, University of Michigan (2018)
  • Gabbay Award, Brandeis (2013)
  • Gill YIA Award, Indiana University (2009)
  • Goldman-Rakic Award, Yale (2013)
  • Harvey Prize in Human Health, Technion, Israel (2017)
  • Heineken Prize in Medicine, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020)
  • Japan Prize in Life Sciences, for optogenetics (2023)
  • Keio Medical Science Prize, for optoenetics (2014)
  • Klingenstein Fellowship, Klingenstein Foundation (2005)
  • Koetser Prize, Zurich Switzerland (2010)
  • Kyoto Prize, for the discovery of optogenetics and the development of causal systems neuroscience (2018)
  • Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, for development of optogenetics (2021)
  • Lawrence C. Katz Prize, Duke University (2008)
  • Lifetime Achievement Award in Medicine, J.E. Wallace Sterling (2020)
  • Luisa Gross Horwitz Prize, for optogenetics (2022)
  • Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, Foundation for the NIH (2015)
  • Massry Prize, Massry Foundation (2017)
  • McKnight Foundation Scholar Award, McKnight Foundation (2007)
  • McKnight Foundation Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award, McKnight Foundation (2005)
  • Meyer Award, American Pcyhiatric Association (2015)
  • Nakasone Prize, HFSP (2010)
  • NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award, NOMIS Foundation (2017)
  • Outstanding Resident, National Institute of Mental Health (2002)
  • Pasarow Foundation Award, Pasarow Foundation (2013)
  • Perl Prize, UNC (2012)
  • Premio Citta' di Firenze for Molecular Sciences, for optogenetics and CLARITY (2013)
  • Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), NIH (2006)
  • Redelsheimer Award, for optogenetics and CLARITY (2016)
  • Richard Lounsbery Prize, National Academy of Sciences (2013)
  • Rumford Prize, AAAS (2018)
  • Schuetze Prize, Columbia (2008)
  • Spencer Prize, Columbia (2011)
  • Warren Alpert Prize, Harvard (2019)
  • Wilson Prize, Harvard (2014)
  • Young investigator Award, Society for Neuroscience (2009)
  • Zuelch Prize, Max-Planck Society (2012)

Memberships
  • Member, National Academy of Medicine (2011 - Present)
  • Member, National Academy of Engineering (2019 - Present)
  • Member, National Academy of Sciences (2012 - Present)

Publications

Specializing In

  • Psychiatric Conditions

Practice Locations


Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic in Palo Alto Stanford, CA
Stanford, CA

401 Quarry Road

Stanford , CA 94304

(650) 498-9111

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