Biography
Professor Khakh completed his Ph.D. with Patrick PA Humphrey at the University of Cambridge. He then did postdoctoral training at the University of Bristol with Graeme Henderson, and at the California Institute of Technology with Henry A. Lester. In 2001, he started his research laboratory as a Group Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. In 2006 he joined the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where he is Professor of Physiology, Professor of Neurobiology and the Eleanor I. Leslie Chair in Neuroscience.
Professor Khakh has made important advances in our understanding of brain function by discovering mechanisms of bidirectional signalling between astrocytes and neurons, and by unmasking the foundations of astrocyte diversity. His work, employing physiological and genetic approaches, revealed astrocytes as causal regulators of neural circuits and behaviour. The Khakh laboratory explores fundamental astrocyte biology in the context of physiology, during neurodegeneration and during the early psychiatric symptoms of degenerative disease. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Professor Khakh starts at the UK DRI in summer 2026.