Kristopher Kahle, MD, PhD

Kristopher T. Kahle, M.D., Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics and Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale School of Medicine, and Director of Neonatal and Congenital Anomaly Neurosurgery in the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery. He completed his MD and PhD degrees at the Yale School of Medicine under the mentorship of Richard Lifton, and neurosurgical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. After residency, Dr. Kahle completed his pediatric neurosurgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and was Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kahle completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with Stephen Elledge and David Clapham at Harvard University. Dr. Kahle’s primary clinical practice includes disorders of neurodevelopment (hydrocephalus, arachnoid cysts, congenital vascular malformations, chiari malformations, spina bifida, and tethered spinal cord) and tumors of the pediatric brain and spinal cord. Dr. Kahle trained in neuroendoscopy, including third ventriculostomy and choroid plexus coagulation, with Dr. Benjamin Warf at Harvard. Dr. Kahle is an attending physician at Yale New Haven Hospital and the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kahle’s research is devoted to identifying the genes and pathways that regulate ion and water homeostasis in the developing nervous system, and how genetically-encoded or maladaptive changes in these processes contribute to the cellular, circuit, and behavioral abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disorders and in the traumatized brain. He also uses molecular genetic tools such as whole exome and genome sequencing to discover the molecular determinants of neurodevelopmental diseases, such as congenital hydrocephalus. The goal of his work is to translate advances in basic science into novel therapeutic strategies for pediatric neurosurgical diseases.