Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics
Institute of Human Genetics
Education
MD, Columbia University
PhD, Columbia University
BA, Philosophy and Biology, Stanford University
Elliott Sherr is a Professor in Neurology, Pediatrics and the Institute of Human Genetics at UCSF. He directs the Brain Development Research Program, a group that studies the genetics and biology of autism and epilepsy (brain.ucsf.edu). Specific areas of interest include understanding the link between advance brain imaging metrics, blood-based biochemical biomarkers and autism susceptibility. His lab also studies how brain function is altered in a “genetics first” model of ASD, as exmplified by deletion of duplication of a 600 kb interval in16p11.2, the most common genetic cause of autism. Dr. Sherr studies the genetics of disorders of callosal development, having identified a number of genes that mechanistically links callosal development to autism. Dr. Sherr also is member of a large epilepsy genetics consortium (http://www.epgp.org/epi4k/) in which he leads a team trying to understand the genetic causes of severe childhood epilepsies, such as infantile spasms. For his research, Dr. Sherr was the 2006 recipient of the Philip R. Dodge Young Investigator Award from the Child Neurology Society. Dr. Sherr is a board certified Child Neurologist and co-directs the Comprehensive Center for Brain Development at UCSF. In this capacity, he cares for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, intellectual disability and epilepsy.
Dr. Sherr is a native of California and completed his clinical training in Pediatrics and Neurology at UCSF. He lives in San Francisco with his wife (a biotechnology financial executive) and his three children.