Stephen J Haggarty

Dr. Stephen J. Haggarty is a faculty member in the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Genomic Medicine at MGH, where he serves as Director of the Chemical Neurobiology Laboratory and Co-Director of the Precision Therapeutics Unit, as well as the Director of Neurobiology for the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics in the MGH Department of Psychiatry. He received a B.Sc. in genetics from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University. 

Dr. Haggarty’s research program operates at the intersection of neurology and psychiatry, with a primary focus on elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuroplasticity in both health and disease. Guided by insights from human genetics into the root causes of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease—and informed by the rich chemical diversity found in nature—his work has led to the discovery of novel experimental therapeutics targeting key pathways, including neurotrophic factor signaling, epigenetic regulation of neuronal gene expression, synaptogenesis, and proteostasis networks. As part of this work, his laboratory has been at the forefront of developing and applying patient-derived stem cell models to investigate neurogenetic disorders. These ex vivo systems serve as powerful platforms for functional genomics, proteomics, and therapeutic discovery, enabling a ‘humanized’ strategy to identify novel targets and therapeutic leads to drive the development of next-generation, disease-modifying treatments grounded in the principles of precision medicine.