Vaishnav Krishnan, M.D., Ph.D.
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Positions
- Assistant Professor
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Neurology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Baylor College of Medicine
- Principal Investigator
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Laboratory of Epilepsy and Emotional Behavior
Baylor College of Medicine
- Adjunct Assistant Professor
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Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rice University
Addresses
- Laboratory of Epilepsy and Emotional Behavior (Lab)
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6550 Fannin St Smith Tower
Neurosensory BCM NA200
Houston, TX 77030
United States
- Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center (Clinic)
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7200 Cambridge St
9th Floor
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Education
- BS from New York University
- 05/2003 - NY, New York United States
- Neuroscience (Hons), Chemistry
- MD-PhD from University of Texas Southwestern Med. Center Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)
- 06/2010 - Dallas, Texas United States
- PhD: Behavioral Neuroscience, Molecular Neuroplasticity
- Internship at Parkland Memorial Hospital/University of Texas Southwestern
- 06/2011 - Dallas, Texas United States
- Internal Medicine
- Residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
- 06/2014 - Boston, Massachusetts United States
- Adult Neurology
- Postdoctoral Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
- 06/2016 - Boston, Massachusetts United States
- Seizures and autism-related behavior, mouse models of autism and epilepsy
- Clinical Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
- 06/2016 - Boston, Massachusetts United States
- Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy
Certifications
- Adult Neurology (2014)
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
- Clinical Neurophysiology (2017)
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
- Epilepsy Medicine (2018)
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Honors & Awards
- Outstanding Resident Teaching Award
- Harvard Medical School (07/2013)
- NINDS R25 Award
- National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (01/2014 - 06/2015)
- Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Epilepsy
- American Academy of Neurology, American Brain Foundation (07/2016 - 08/2018)
- Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award K08
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (04/2019 - 03/2024)
- Junior Faculty Seed Grant
- Curtis Hankamer Basic Research Fund (07/2019 - 06/2020)
- Junior Investigator Award
- American Epilepsy Society (10/2020 - 09/2021)
- Mike Hogg Fund Award
- The Mike Hogg Fund (02/2021 - 01/2022)
Professional Interests
- Epilepsy and Mental Health Disorders
- Comorbid Epileptic and Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures
- Comorbid treatment-refractory depression AND epilepsy
- Behavioral Phenotyping in Mouse Models of Neuropsychiatric Illness
- Home Cage Monitoring
Professional Statement
I am proud to be a physician-scientist at the Baylor Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. I am an adult neurologist with expertise in treating epilepsy (an "epileptologist") and the interpretation of electroencephalograms (EEGs) and other neuromonitoring techniques (a "clinical neurophysiologist"). I have a special interest in caring for patients with epilepsy and comorbid mental health conditions (such as depression/anxiety, psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, schizophrenia, or autism). My laboratory uses mouse models of epilepsy to explain how certain brain "lesions" that produce hyperexcitability (or medications that treat hyperexcitability) may give rise to pervasive alterations in emotional behavior and social drive (www.bcm.edu/krishnanlab).I received a PhD in Neuroscience as a part of a combined MDPhD program. For my PhD, I used mouse models of psychosocial stress to understand how certain molecular and cellular changes in specific brain regions underlie whether an animal may be vulnerable or resilient to the psychopathological effects of chronic stress. After my clinical training, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology, where I examined how the experience of recurrent seizures result in long lasting alterations in neuronal physiology that may give rise to changes in sociability.
My scientific goals are to understand the biology underlying the intersections between seizures, epilepsy and psychiatric symptoms/mental health disorders. I hope to build a systematic approach to treating epilepsy as a spectrum disorder, where a distributed network-based "lesion" gives rise to both "ictal" changes (brief, paroxysmal and stereotyped abnormalities of neurological function) and "interictal" changes (pervasive aberrations in mood, anxiety, activity or sociability). My goal is for this work to be translated into a comprehensive pathophysiology-based approach to treating epilepsy spectrum disorders where seizures and psychiatric/cognitive derangements are addressed with equal importance through a comprehensive team of care providers. Towards this goal, I direct the Laboratory of Epilepsy and Emotional Behavior at the Baylor College of Medicine, where we apply state of the art behavioral monitoring techniques in mice to carefully dissect how genetic vulnerabilities that result in epilepsy or elevated seizure risk impact activity, anxiety, motivation and sociability.
Websites
Selected Publications
- Bass JS, Tuo AH, Ton LT, Jankovic MJ, Kapadia PK, Schirmer C, Krishnan V "On the Digital Psychopharmacology of Valproic Acid in Mice." Front Neurosci. 2020 Nov 6;14:594612. Pubmed PMID: 33240040
- Krishnan V "Depression and Anxiety in the Epilepsies: from Bench to Bedside." Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2020 Pubmed PMID: 32666148
- Jankovic MJ, Kapadia PP, Krishnan V "Home-cage monitoring ascertains signatures of ictal and interictal behavior in mouse models of generalized seizures.." PLoS One. 2019 Pubmed PMID: 31697745
- Krishnan V, Stoppel DC, Nong Y, Johnson MA, Nadler MJ, Ozkaynak E, Teng BL, Nagakura I, Mohammad F, Silva MA, Peterson S, Cruz TJ, Kasper EM, Arnaout R, Anderson MP. "Autism gene Ube3a and seizures impair sociability by repressing VTA Cbln1.." Nature. 2017 Pubmed PMID: 28297715
- Krishnan V, Han MH, Graham DL, Berton O, Renthal W, Russo SJ, Laplant Q, Graham A, Lutter M, Lagace DC, Ghose S, Reister R, Tannous P, Green TA, Neve RL, Chakravarty S, Kumar A, Eisch AJ, Self DW, Lee FS, Tamminga CA, Cooper DC, Gershenfeld HK, Nestler EJ "Molecular adaptations underlying susceptibility and resistance to social defeat in brain reward regions.." Cell. 2007 Pubmed PMID: 17956738
- Krishnan V, Nestler EJ. "The molecular neurobiology of depression.." Nature. 2008 Pubmed PMID: 18923511
- Krishnan V, Nestler EJ "Linking molecules to mood: new insight into the biology of depression.." Am J Psychiatry. 2010 Pubmed PMID: 20843874
- Krishnan V, Leung LY, Caplan LR. "A neurologist's approach to delirium: diagnosis and management of toxic metabolic encephalopathies.." Eur J Intern Med. 2014 Pubmed PMID: 24332366
- Krishnan, V., Krishnamurthy, KB "Interictal 12-lead electrocardiography in patients with epilepsy.." Epilepsy Behav. 2013 Pubmed PMID: 23992874
- Krishnan V, Nestler EJ "Animal models of depression: molecular perspectives.." Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2011 Pubmed PMID: 21225412
Memberships
- American Academy of Neurology
- American Epilepsy Society
- NINDS/AES Epilepsy Benchmark Stewards Committee
- AES Committee on Psychosocial Comorbidities of Epilepsy
- (01/2021 - 12/2023)
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