Dr. Stephen Waxman

Stephen Waxman MD, PhD

Scientific Advisor
Dr. Stephen Waxman
Stephen Waxman is the Flaherty Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology at Yale. His research has made pivotal contributions in injury to the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, and he pinpointed Nav1.7 as a master controller of pain.
Stephen Waxman is the Flaherty Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology at Yale. His research has made pivotal contributions in injury to the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, and he pinpointed Nav1.7 as a master controller of pain.

Dr. Waxman is the Bridget Flaherty Professor of Neurology, Neurobiology, and Pharmacology, and the founder and director of the Neuroscience & Regeneration Research Center at Yale University. Prior to moving to Yale, he worked at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. In translational leaps from laboratory to humans, he carried out molecule-to-man studies combining molecular genetics, molecular biology, and biophysics to demonstrate the contribution of ion channels to human pain. Additionally, Prof. Waxman led an international coalition that identified sodium channel mutations as causes of peripheral neuropathy and certain channelopathies. In particular, he characterized the gain-of-function mutations in the voltage-gated sodium channel α-subunit gene SCN9A that encodes for NaV1.7 in patients and determined that it was responsible for their painful neuropathy. This genetic disease, Primary Erythromelalgia, has been one of Dr. Waxman’s focus as he led numerous clinical studies at Yale.

Dr. Waxman has published more than 700 scientific papers.  His H-index is 109 and his papers have been cited more than 40,000 times.  He has edited nine books, and is the author of Spinal Cord Compression and of Clinical Neuroanatomy (translated into eight languages).