Christopher Smyser, MD, MSCI

Christopher Smyser, MD, MSCI, is the Director of the Neonatal Neurology Clinical Program and head of the Pediatric Neurocritical Care Section in the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology at Washington University/St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where he is an Associate Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, and Radiology. He also co-directs the Baker Family Fellowship in Neonatal Neurology and Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Follow-Up Programs. His clinical efforts are dedicated to the Neonatal Neurology Clinical Service, a multidisciplinary, integrated clinical program devoted to providing comprehensive neurological care for infants at risk for adverse neurological outcomes beginning during their initial hospitalization and continuing following discharge.

With a background in biomedical engineering, Smyser’s research focuses on the use of advanced neuroimaging techniques to provide greater understanding of early brain development and the pathway to neurodevelopmental disabilities. He is Co-Director of the Washington University Neonatal Developmental Research (WUNDER) Laboratory.  Smyser’s multidisciplinary research efforts have centered upon the use of resting state-functional connectivity MRI and diffusion MRI to investigate functional and structural brain development in high-risk pediatric populations from infancy through adolescence. He is currently the principal investigator for multiple NIH-funded longitudinal studies focused upon defining the deleterious effects of prematurity, brain injury, and environmental exposures on neurodevelopmental and psychiatric outcomes through development and application of state-of-the-art neuroimaging approaches. He is also Principal Investigator for the Data Coordinating Center for the longitudinal, multi-site Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study and Co-Director of the Clinical-Translational Core of the Washington University Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC).