Louis Ptáček leads the Division of Neurogenetics, in the Department of Neurology, at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.Ptáček’s interest is in inherited disorders of the nervous system in human families and his early research identified mutations in several ion channels that caused episodic diseases such as periodic paralysis. More recently, in close collaboration with Dr. Fu, his lab has identified genes involved in degenerative muscle disease, epilepsy, movement disorders and sleep/wake disorders.
As an undergraduate, Ptáček studied mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and he also received his MD degree there.