Vaishnav Krishnan

Vaishnav Krishnan, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor

(713) 798-2273

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Email

vkrish@bcm.edu

Positions

Associate Professor: Neurology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
��Ƶ of Medicine
Houston, Texas

Adjunct Associate Professor: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rice University

Principal Investigator: Laboratory of Epilepsy and Emotional Behavior
��Ƶ of Medicine

Addresses

Laboratory of Epilepsy and Emotional Behavior (Lab): 6550 Fannin St Smith Tower
Neurosensory BCM NA200
Houston, TX, 77030
United States

��Ƶ of Medicine Medical Center (Clinic): 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)

Gulf Coast Center for Precision Health Pilot Award: P30ES030285 (01/2022 - 01/2023)

Editorial Board: JAMA Neurology: (01/2022)

Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society (FAES): AES (12/2022)

Associate Course Director: Nervous System (MBNRS MAIN): ��Ƶ of Medicine (07/2020 - 06/2023)

Course Director: Epilepsy and EEG (MENEU 201): ��Ƶ of Medicine (07/2020 - 06/2023)

INQUIRY ADVISOR: ��Ƶ of Medicine (07/2023)

Professional Interests

Epilepsy and Mental Health Disorders
Epilepsy, Intellectual Disability and Neurodevelopmental Delay
Comorbid treatment-refractory depression AND epilepsy
Behavioral Phenotyping in Mouse Models of Neuropsychiatric Illness
Home Cage Monitoring
Actigraphy and Neuropsychiatric Disability

Professional Statement

I am proud to be a physician-scientist at the ��Ƶ of Medicine’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and the Peter Kellaway Section of Clinical Neurophysiology. In the clinical domain, I am an adult neurologist with subspecialty expertise in the treatment of epilepsy and related disorders (such as functional/psychogenic seizures). As a board-certified clinical neurophysiologist, I read and interpret clinical electroencephalography (EEG) and other intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring studies. My clinical interests focus on caring for patients with epilepsy who are affected by one or more psychiatric comorbidities (including depression, psychogenic nonepileptic seizures, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and autism), a neurobiological niche that is the scientific focus of my basic science laboratory. In addition to bedside and EEG lab-side teaching, I formally participate in didactic education for medical, graduate and undergraduate students. My prior research focused on applying systems neuroscience to study mouse models of neuropsychiatric disease. For my PhD at the UTSouthwestern Medical Scientist Training Program, I examined how specific molecular changes in mesolimbic dopamine neurons underlie whether a mouse may display a vulnerable or resilient behavioral profile following repeated social stress. During and after residency/fellowship training at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, I returned to the bench to explore how recurrent seizures induce cascades of neuroplasticity that function to impede sociability/social drive. Today, my laboratory’s research program combines multimodal behavioral telemetry in mice and wearable technologies in patient volunteers to study how seizures, seizure risk (epilepsy) and antiseizure treatments impact spontaneous behavior. This work seeks to improve on treatments for epilepsy spectrum disorders by devising new, translationally fluid behavioral endpoints designed to tease out the determinants of interictal behavior. In doing so, our research defines a new quantitative and objective approach to ascertain the mental status of a mouse.

Websites

Baylor Comprehensive Epilepsy Center

Department of Neurology

��Ƶ of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program

Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Training

Epilepsy Fellowship Training Program

Selected Publications

Mazumder AG, Karedia S, Adhyapak N, Schirmer C, Bass SJ, Kamen JL, Jankovic MJ, Miao Q, Gallitano AL, Saltzman AB, Jain A, Malovannaya A, Glasscock E, Aiba I, Noebels JL, Krishnan, V. " " biorXiv. 2025 ;
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Vieluf S, Tomioka S, Zhang B, Krishnan V, Bosl WJ, Grinnell T, Loddenkemper T. " " 2025 ;
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Hadj-Amar B, Krishnan V, Vannucci M. " " Data Science in Science. 2025 ;
Adhyapak N, Cardenas GE, Abboud MA, Krishnan, V. " " Epilepsia Open. 2025 ;
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Krishnan V, Wu J, Mazumder AG, Kamen JL, Schirmer C, Adhyapak N, Bass SJ, Lee SC, Maheshwari A, Molinaro G, Gibson JR, Huber KM, Minassian BA. " " J Comp Neurol. 2024 ;
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Abboud MA, Kamen JL, Bass JS, Lin, Gavvala JR, Rao S, Smagula SF, Krishnan V. " " Epilepsia. 2023 Apr 24;
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Schirmer C, Abboud MA, Lee SC, Bass JS, Mazumder AG, Kamen JL, Krishnan V.. " " Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 27;
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Bass JS, Tuo AH, Ton LT, Jankovic MJ, Kapadia PK, Schirmer C, Krishnan V. " " Front Neurosci. 2020 Nov 6; 14 : 594612.
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Krishnan V. " " Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2020 ;
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Jankovic MJ, Kapadia PP, Krishnan V. " " PLoS One. 2019 ;
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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.. " " Nature. 2017 ;
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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. " " Cell. 2007 ;
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Krishnan V, Nestler EJ.. " " Nature. 2008 ;
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Krishnan V, Nestler EJ. " " Am J Psychiatry. 2010 ;
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Krishnan V, Leung LY, Caplan LR.. " " Eur J Intern Med. 2014 ;
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Krishnan, V., Krishnamurthy, KB. " " Epilepsy Behav. 2013 ;
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Krishnan V, Nestler EJ. " " Curr Top Behav Neurosci.. 2011 ;
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Memberships

American Academy of Neurology

American Epilepsy Society

NINDS/AES Epilepsy Benchmark Stewards Committee

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