Michael Greenberg, Ph.D.

Michael Greenberg is the Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology and chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as the co-director of the Harvard Brain Science Initiative. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Greenberg received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University in 1982. In 1986, he joined the Harvard Medical School, becoming chair of the Department of Neurobiology in 2008.

The Greenberg laboratory studies how our interactions with the outside world trigger changes in neurons that are critical for proper brain development and higher cognitive function. Specifically, the lab’s research focuses on mechanisms by which experience-driven neuronal activity regulates gene expression that promotes the maturation and refinement of neural circuits. A number of neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism, have now been linked to abnormalities in these gene regulatory pathways. Greenberg and his lab study the underlying basis of such conditions.