Michael D Taylor

Dr. Michael D. Taylor is a Professor at Baylor College of Medicine and holds the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Chair of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he serves as Director of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Program. He is also a Staff Neurosurgeon at Texas Children’s Hospital and a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research.

Education:

• MD, University of Western Ontario (1994)
• PhD, University of Toronto (2002)
• Residency, University of Toronto (2003)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cancer Genomics, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (2004-2005)

Research Focus: Dr. Taylor’s work centers on the molecular genetics of medulloblastoma and ependymoma, two common malignant pediatric brain tumors. His lab has redefined medulloblastoma as at least four distinct diseases through genomic and epigenomic studies, with recent discoveries linking cerebellar tumors to disruptions in early brain development (Nature 2019, 2022). His team has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles, including breakthroughs in Nature, Cell, and Lancet Oncology, cited 70,000+ times.

Scientific Awards:

• Canada’s Top 40 under 40 (2008)
• Royal College Gold Medal in Surgery (2010)
• Zulch Prize in Neuroscience (2016)
• Royal Society of Canada Fellowship (2019)

Team & Collaborations: His interdisciplinary Taylor Lab includes cell biologists, bioinformaticians, and clinicians working with preclinical models, clinical samples, and single-cell multiome sequencing. Key collaborators span institutions like St. Jude, Hospital for Sick Children, and University of Toronto.