CV

Contact

Christian A. Porras, Ph.D.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Center for Disease Neurogenomics
New York, NY
christian.porras@icahn.mssm.edu
ORCID

Education

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
M.D./Ph.D. training
Dissertation advisors: Panos Roussos, MD, PhD; Donghoon Lee, PhD
Ph.D. defended September 2025

The University of Chicago
B.A., Biological Sciences
Specialization in Quantitative Biology, with honors
Honors thesis advisor: John Novembre, PhD

Academic positions

  • Co-Principal Investigator, EHHOP CHARTS, East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership, 2025–present
  • Chief Research Director, East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership, 2025–2026
  • Teaching Fellow, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2024, 2025
  • Graduate Researcher, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 2020–present
  • Teaching Assistant, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 2021–present
  • Primary Reviewer / Board Member, ISMMS Institutional Review Board, 2022–present
  • Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of Chicago, 2016–2020
  • Teaching Assistant, University of Chicago, 2017–2020

Research summary

My research focuses on neuropsychiatric disease biology, statistical genetics, single-cell transcriptomics, and neuroimmune mechanisms in human brain disease. I have worked on population genetics, pathway-based risk analysis, and single-cell functional genomics of aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Publications

Journal articles

  • Blanc J, Steiner MC, Blake LE, Gibbons E, Ianni-Ravn MK, Morgan R, Parkinson S, Porras C, Zhong E. Ten simple rules for success as a trainee-led outreach organization in computational biology education. PLOS Computational Biology. 2025.
  • Steiner MC, Rice DP, Biddanda A, Ianni-Ravn MK, Porras C, Novembre J. Study design and the sampling of deleterious rare variants in biobank-scale datasets. PNAS. 2025.
  • Choi SW, García-González J, Ruan Y, Wu HM, Porras C, Johnson J, Hoggart CJ, O’Reilly PF. PRSet: Pathway-based polygenic risk score analyses and software. PLoS Genetics. 2023.
  • Dullea JT, Vasan V, Devarajan A, Ali M, Nichols N, Chaluts D, Henson P, Porras C, Lopez C, Luna D, Liou L, Bederson J, Shrivastava RK. Utilization of palliative care services among patients with malignant brain tumors. Neurosurgery. 2023.
  • Vasan V, Dullea JT, Devarajan A, Vasa D, Ali M, Nichols N, Henson P, Porras C, Lopez C, Luna D, Liou L, Iloreta AM, Govindaraj S, Bederson J, Shrivastava RK. Predictors of prolonged length of stay after pituitary adenoma resection. American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy. 2023.

Preprints

  • Porras C, Lee D, Vicari JM, Spencer C, Pjanic M, Wang X, Kinrot S, Weiler P, Kosoy R, Bendl J, Prashant NM, Psychogyiou K, Malakates P, Hennigan E, Fortes JM, Zheng S, Therrien K, Mathur D, Kleopoulos SP, et al. Plasticity of human microglia and brain perivascular macrophages in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. medRxiv. 2023.
  • Clarence T, Masse N, Porras C, et al. A Transcriptomic Roadmap of Parkinson’s Disease Progression at Single Cell Resolution. medRxiv. 2025.

Selected works in progress

  • Cell-cell interactome dysregulation in neuropsychiatric disease
  • Telepsychiatry outcomes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in a free clinic
  • A transcriptomic roadmap of Parkinson’s disease progression at single-cell resolution

Selected presentations

  • “Deciphering human brain cellular crosstalk in the context of neuropsychiatric disease,” American Society of Human Genetics, 2023
  • “Effective organizing for equitable science,” SACNAS National Conference, 2019
  • “Spatial population genetic model for deleterious alleles,” Midstates Math and Science Symposium, 2018

Teaching

  • Ethical and Regulatory Issues in Human Research, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Clinical Research Education in Genome Science, ISMMS
  • Introduction to R, ISMMS
  • Structures: Medical Anatomy, ISMMS
  • Intro. to Bioinformatics, ISMMS
  • Intro. to Quant. Modeling in Biology, University of Chicago

Leadership

  • Chief Research Director, East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership
  • Director, Mental Health Clinic Research, East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership
  • Senior Clinician, East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership
  • Career Mentor, Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America
  • Co-Leader, Medicina en Español
  • Founder, Computational STEM Lab
  • President and Founder, UChicago SACNAS

Awards and fellowships

  • ACNP Near-Peer Mentorship Program, 2025–2027
  • Dean’s Team Science Award, ISMMS, 2025
  • Mount Sinai Health System STAR Recognition, 2025
  • Trainee Research Excellence Award, ASHG, 2023
  • Rhodes Scholarship local finalist, University of Chicago, 2020
  • Howell Murray Alumni Association Award, 2020
  • Stanek Prize for Undergraduate Excellence, 2020
  • National ABRCMS Conference Travel Award, 2019
  • Reviewers’ Choice Abstract, ASHG, 2019
  • National SACNAS Conference Travel Award, 2018

Memberships

  • American Society of Human Genetics
  • Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in STEM