Louise Gallagher

Dr. Louise Gallagher is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and researcher specializing in genomics, neuroscience, and neurodevelopmental conditions. She trained in psychiatry in Ireland and earned a PhD in Psychiatric Genetics at Trinity College Dublin through a Welcome Trust Fellowship. From 2011–2022, she held the Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Trinity and worked extensively across clinical services, including autism and consultation-liaison care. Her research focuses on translating genomics into personalized treatments for youth mental health. In 2022, she became Chief of the Child and Youth Mental Health Collaborative at SickKids and CAMH, and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Gallagher is a dedicated advocate for youth mental health services and a committed mentor in medicine and science.

Research

The overall objective of my research and clinical endeavors is to provide improved clinical care and therapeutics to people with neurodevelopmental disabilities through the application of clinical neuroscience and genetic analysis. I use these approaches to understand better neurobiological mechanisms underpinning cognition and behavior and to inform the development of improved biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment. I have been involved in numerous large international research consortia related to autism and neurodevelopmental disorders, spanning the fields of genomics, neuroimaging and clinical care.

Education and experience

• 2022–Current: Chief, Child and Youth Mental Health Collaboration, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON
• 2022–Current: Director, Division of Child and Youth Mental Health, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
• 2022–Current: Chief, Psychiatry, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON
• 2022–Current: Chief, Child and Youth Division, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON
• 2021–Current: Member, IPWSO Mental Health Network
• 2021–Current: Member, National PWS Mental Health Working Group, Irish Health Service, Ireland
• 2020–Current: Member, International PWS Clinical Trials Consortium
• 2018–Current: Member, Steering Committee, The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA), Ireland
• 2014–Current: Member, AIMS-2-TRIALS Clinical Trials Network
• 2018–2021: Director of Research, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
• 2018–2021: Chair, School of Medicine Research Committee, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
• 2018–2021: Member, Trinity College Dublin Research Committee, Dublin, Ireland
• 2016–2019: Member, Steering Committee, Autism Spectrum Disorder-UK (ASD-UK), United Kingdom
• 2011–2022: Professor and Chair, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
• 2002–2005: National Training Scheme in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Ireland
• 1999–2004: Clinical Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
• May 1999: Membership, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, United Kingdom
• 1995–1998: Dublin University Training Scheme in Psychiatry, Dublin, Ireland
• 1994–1995: Junior House Officer, Ulster Hospital Dundonald, Belfast, Northern Ireland
• 1988–1994: Undergraduate Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

1. De Rubeis, S., He, X., Goldberg, A. et al. Synaptic, transcriptional and chromatin genes disrupted in autism. Nature 515, 209–215 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13772
2. Di Martino, A., Yan, CG., Li, Q. et al. The autism brain imaging data exchange: towards a large-scale evaluation of the intrinsic brain architecture in autism. Mol Psychiatry 19, 659–667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.78
3. Pinto, D., Pagnamenta, A., Klei, L. et al. Functional impact of global rare copy number variation in autism spectrum disorders. Nature 466, 368–372 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09146
4. FK Satterstrom, JA Kosmicki, J Wang et al., Large-scale exome sequencing study implicates both developmental and functional changes in the neurobiology of autism. Cell 180(3), 568-584 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.12.036
5. Pinto, Dalila et al. Convergence of genes and cellular pathways dysregulated in autism spectrum disorders. American journal of human genetics vol. 94(5) 677-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2014.03.018