Gord Fishell

Biosketch

Gord Fishell is a neuroscientist recognized for his work on the development and function of cortical inhibition. He is known for his work on the specification of inhibitory interneuron subtypes and for their contribution to cortical development and function. He was born in Toronto, Canada and did his PhD in neurobiology at the University of Toronto. In 1989 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University before moving to the Rockefeller University from 1992 to 1994. From 1994 to 2006 he was a member of the Developmental Genetic Program at the Skirball Institute at NYU School of Medicine. After establishing the Smilow Institute of Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine in 2006, he became the the associate director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute and the Julius Raines Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology in 2011. In 2017 he became a professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and an institute member at the Stanley Center at the Broad.

Research Interests

Gord Fishell's laboratory is interested in how the architecture of brain circuits is assembled, with a special focus on the diverse populations of inhibitory interneurons that are found in the cerebral cortex. His laboratory has worked to understand the specification and integration of different inhibitory cells from their generation in the subpallium to their integration in cortical circuits. The Fishell laboratory not only focuses on normal brain function but seeks to understand how the genetic insults that manifest in autism or schizophrenia effect the development and function of interneurons and by proxy manifest in neuropsychiatric disorders.