Vikram (Vik) Khurana, MD, PhD

Vik Khurana, M.D., Ph.D., is the inaugural incumbent of the Tracy T. Batchelor Endowed Chair in Neurology at Mass General Brigham; Chief of the Movement Disorders Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital; and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He holds faculty appointments at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Khurana obtained his medical degree from the University of Sydney, his Ph.D. in neurobiology from Harvard University, completed neurology and movement disorders subspecialty training at Mass General Brigham, and postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute with Susan Lindquist and Rudolf Jaenisch.

At MGB, Dr. Khurana leads: (i) the Harvard Biomarkers Study (HBS 2.0), an extensive longitudinal biomarker and natural history study of patients with neurodegenerative diseases; (ii) the precision medicine (MyTrial) program; (iii) the American Parkinson’s Disease Association (APDA) Center for Advanced Research; and (iv) the Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) Center of Excellence. He is a member of the scientific advisory boards of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), APDA, and Mission MSA.

The Khurana Lab has pioneered “systems cell biology” (stem cell biology, genomics, and high-throughput cellular analyses) to understand the diverse presentations and outcomes of neurodegenerative diseases (“patient heterogeneity”) and to ultimately develop precision medicines. The lab focuses on “synucleinopathies”: degenerative movement disorders related to aggregation of the alpha-synuclein (?-synuclein; aSyn) protein in the brain, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), Lewy body dementia, and MSA. Multiple findings from the lab have led to genetic, small-molecule, and immunomodulatory therapies now in clinical trials.

Dr. Khurana has founded two biotechnology companies, including DaCapo Brainsciences. He is a past Fulbright Scholar, NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigator, ANA Derek Denny-Brown Neurological Scholar, APDA Cotzias Fellow, and Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Investigator.