John Thompson, MD

John Thompson, MD

John was born in Tennessee and spent his early childhood there before moving to Minnesota in middle school. Despite the snow, he stayed in Minnesota and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, majoring in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Philosophy. While there, he worked in the lab of Dr. Christy Haynes developing analytical techniques to quantify inflammatory, bioactive lipids produced by cells in response to nanoparticles and allergens. At this point, John had it with dark winters and moved out to beautiful, sunny, and completely devoid-of-snow Southern California to purse his MD-PhD as part of the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his PhD at Caltech in the lab of Dr. Linda Hsieh-Wilson, studying how protein glycosylation affects neuronal signaling and metabolism. He also designed novel chemical and mass spectrometry techniques to detect and characterize dynamic sugar modifications across cells and tissues. Throughout his training, John was continually struck not just by the persistent enigma that is neuroscience, but also by just how profound an effect neurological disease can have on a person. He decided to pursue neurology residency (still in sunny Southern California) at UCLA where he is excited to continue exploring his dual passions for understanding the brain and helping people heal from neurological insults. In his spare time, John enjoys hiking, backpacking, snowboarding, and arguing with his wife (a cardiologist) about whether the heart or the brain is more important (obviously the brain).