Biography

Youssef A. Kousa, MS, D.O., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist specializing in prenatal and neonatal critical care neurology at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. During pediatric internship, he founded an international, trans-disciplinary research team, the Zika Genetics Consortium, to study the 2015 Zika virus pandemic and model human genetic modifiers of neuroinfectious diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Kousa is the Principal Investigator of the Consortium, which now includes 21 co-investigators representing 18 different institutions. Partnering with the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Consortium is bringing together mother-infant dyad cohorts with 12,000 participants throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Dr. Kousa completed a combined pediatrics and child neurology residency at Children’s National Hospital and the DO-PhD Physician Scientist Training Program at Michigan State University. Through graduate and post-graduate research training, he has focused on human genetics, genetic engineering, developmental biology, immunology, and virology. His accomplishments include creation of an adenovirus-based malaria vaccine, discovery of a conserved gene regulatory network in craniofacial and neural tube development, 30 peer-reviewed publications, and multiple national and international invited research presentations. His awards and honors span academic, research, service, and leadership roles, including the highest honors possible at Michigan State University for a graduate and medical student. Dr. Kousa directs the Perinatal Neuroinfections Clinic at Children’s National Hospital and is an Instructor in Neurology, Pediatrics, & Genomics, and Precision Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.