Bryan J. Traynor


Bryan J. Traynor is a neurologist and geneticist. He is a senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging and adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University. Traynor studies the genetics of human neurological conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, and myasthenia gravis. He led the international consortium that identified pathogenic repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene as a common cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Traynor also led efforts that identified Mendelian genes responsible for familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and dementias including VCP, MATR3, and KIF5A, and he identified the CTLA4 locus as a potentially druggable target in patients diagnosed with myasthenia gravis.

Education

Traynor received his medical degree from University College Dublin in 1993. In 2000, he completed his Medical Doctorate at University College Dublin in epidemiology and genetics. He then moved to Boston, where he was a neurology resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He received his Master of Medical Science in 2004 from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a Doctor of Philosophy degree in neurogenetics from University College Dublin in 2012.

Awards, prizes, and honors