Michael Harrington

M.B., Ch.B., F.R.C.P.

Michael Harrington joined HMRI and established the Molecular Neurology Program in 1998. Dr. Harrington’s work determines the causes of common brain disorders in an effort to improve diagnosis and treatment. His research focuses on migraine, the neurodegenerative disorders of aging, and mild traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Harrington received his medical degree in 1976 from Glasgow University, Scotland, and was awarded membership into the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1979. He was elected as a fellow in 1993.

At Glasgow Royal Infirmary, he completed a medical internship in 1977 and trained in internal medicine through 1979. His growing interest in neurological diseases led him to the Institute of Neurological Sciences at Glasgow, where he trained in neurology and initiated two-dimensional electrophoresis studies of spinal fluid proteins, which were altered in diseases of the nervous system.

In 1983, Dr. Harrington continued this research as a visiting fellow at the Laboratory of General and Comparative Biochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health. He also served as a visiting associate at the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, NIMH during this time.

Moving to the California Institute of Technology in 1988, he served as a senior research fellow and as a member of the Beckman Institute, where he improved technologies for a variety of protein studies. Dr. Harrington is known for the discovery and development of the diagnostic test for the family of prion diseases (Mad Cow Disease). This test is based on his discovery of a protein in spinal fluid, 14-3-3 gamma, that is specific to the spongiform encephalopathy diseases of humans (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) and other mammals (Scrapie and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy).