Rate My Professor Peter Crino

Peter B. Crino, MD, PhD, serves as the Dr. Richard and Kathryn Taylor Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He received a BA in Psychology/Philosophy from Binghamton University in 1984, an MD from Yale School of Medicine in 1990, and a PhD in Neuroscience from Boston University in 1990. His clinical training includes an internship in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1990 to 1991, a residency in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1994, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician Post-Doctoral Fellowship along with a Clinical Epilepsy Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 1997.

Dr. Crino's distinguished career encompasses roles as Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2005 and Associate Professor from 2005 to 2012, during which he directed the PENN Epilepsy Program from 2006 to 2012 and the UPENN Epilepsy Center from 2007 to 2012, establishing the first adult tuberous sclerosis complex clinic in the United States in 1998. From 2012 to 2016, he was Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Neurology at Temple University School of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Shriners Hospitals Pediatric Research Center. His research program, funded continuously by the NIH for over 20 years, investigates developmental brain malformations associated with epilepsy, autism, and intellectual disabilities, with a focus on mTORopathies including tuberous sclerosis complex, focal cortical dysplasia, and hemimegalencephaly. He pioneered the concept of mTORopathies and employs human brain tissue analysis, mouse models, and in vitro systems. Notable publications include "The mTOR signalling cascade: paving new roads to cure neurological disease" (Nature Reviews Neurology, 2016), "Rapamycin prevents seizures after depletion of STRADA in a rare neurodevelopmental disorder" (Science Translational Medicine, 2013), "Activation of the mTOR cascade distinguishes cortical tubers from focal cortical dysplasia" (Annals of Neurology, 2004), and "Biallelic TSC gene inactivation in tuberous sclerosis complex" (Neurology, 2010). Dr. Crino has authored or co-authored 151 peer-reviewed manuscripts and received the Lifetime Service Award from the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance in 2008 and the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award in 2021. He has served on numerous advisory boards, chaired study sections at NINDS, and held leadership positions including Program Chair of the American Epilepsy Society in 2016 and President of the Philadelphia Neurological Society in 2016.