Pat Levitt, PhD

Pat Levitt is Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and WM Keck Professor of Neurogenetics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in the Dept. Pediatrics. He serves as the Chief Scientific Officer, Vice President and Director of The Saban Research Institute at CHLA. Elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2013, Levitt is a developmental neuroscientist studying the genetic and environmental factors that impact the maturation of circuits mediating social, emotional and cognitive functions. He has a long-standing interest in determining the mechanisms that underlie clinical phenotype heterogeneity.

Levitt does both basic research in mouse models and clinical studies on human infants who are at risk for toxic stress due to early adversity. The work focuses on determining the impact of early life stress on child adaptive or maladaptive metabolic and behavioral responses related to social, emotional and cognitive development. Levitt also has longstanding studies of children with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and co-occurring gastrointestinal disturbances, which have led to improved multi-disciplinary interventions and medical treatments. Levitt is involved in policy work as the Co-Scientific Director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, having spoken in over 40 states in the U.S., and in Canada and Mexico to policy makers, business leaders and service providers about the powerful influence of early experiences on lifespan physical and mental health. He has published over 300 research papers and reviews and has been continuously funded by NIH and non-profit foundations since 1982.

Levitt serves on the Board of Governors of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and on several external university and children’s hospitals scientific advisory boards. Levitt is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Mind, Brain and Education and a science mentor on the journal Frontiers for Young Minds. Levitt received a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago, a PhD in Neuroscience at University of California, San Diego, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. He has held senior leadership positions at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and now at CHLA.

Disclosures:
Financial: Honorarium for speaking, employed by University of Southern California
Non-Financial: None