Scientific Advisory Board Member, Our Moon’s Mission: Genetic Cures for Kids Inc.
Darius Ebrahimi-Fakhari, M.D., Ph.D., is a Child Neurologist and Neuroscientist with special expertise in childhood-onset neurogenetic, neurodegenerative, and movement disorders. He serves as the Director of the Movement Disorders Program and the Movement Disorders and Neurogenetic Fellowship Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. As a physician-scientist, the objective of his research is to understand the genetic and molecular mechanisms of childhood-onset movement disorders and to use this knowledge to develop novel therapeutic approaches to treat and cure a variety of neurological diseases.
Dr. Ebrahimi-Fakhari received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, Germany. After graduating, he trained in Pediatrics at Heidelberg University Hospital before returning to neuroscience research as a postdoctoral research fellow at the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center and the Department of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, to study mechanisms of protein trafficking and degradation in neurons. After additional residency training in Pediatrics and Child Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard Neurology Program, he completed a clinical fellowship in Movement Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Over the last years, Dr. Ebrahimi-Fakhari’s team has built a translational research program for childhood-onset movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia. This includes the first Registry and Natural History Study for Childhood-Onset Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04712812) and a gene discovery platform (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05354622). His lab has made significant contributions to the understanding of childhood-onset forms of hereditary spastic paraplegia and other movement disorders. Collectively, Dr. Ebrahimi-Fakhari’s work has been published in over 90 scientific publications. He has been awarded the Outstanding Junior Member Award from the Child Neurology Society, the Outstanding Investigator Award from the German Society for Pediatric Neurology, and the Young Physician Scientist Award from the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Work in the Ebrahimi-Fakhari lab has been supported by the NIH/NINDS, the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation, Thrasher Research Foundation, CureAP4 Foundation, CureSPG50 Foundation, the Tom-Wahlig Foundation, The Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research, the BCH Office of Faculty Development, the BCH Translational Research Program, and Astellas Pharmaceuticals.
In his clinical practice, Dr. Ebrahimi-Fakhari cares for children with movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. He is an advocate for families with rare diseases and serves this community clinically and scientifically.
