Christopher D. Watt, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Program Director, Molecular Genetic Pathology Fellowship
Associate Director, Molecular Pathology Laboratory
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Contact InformationDepartment of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
3400 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email: christopher.watt@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Specialty Division
Precision and Computational Diagnostics
Clinical Expertise
Molecular Pathology
Education
B.S. (Biology), University of Kentucky, 1996
M.D. (Medicine), Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2005
Ph.D. (Cell and Molecular Biology), Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2005
Specialty Certification
Board Certified in Clinical Pathology (American Board of Pathology), 2008
Board Certified in Molecular Genetic Pathology (American Board of Pathology), 2009
Postgraduate Training
Resident in Clinical Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2005-2008
Fellow in Molecular Genetic Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2008-2009
Molecular Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine Fellowship, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2009-2010
Clinical Research Certificate Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 2009-2010
Awards and Honors
Franklin Medical Scholar Fellowship,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1996-1998
Medical Scientist Training Program,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1998-2005
Pennsylvania Muscle Institute Training Grant,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 1999-2000
Cell and Developmental Biology Training Grant,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2001-2003
Leonard Berwick Resident Teaching Award, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2008
Chairman’s Award for Distinguished Service, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2008
The William Pepper Fellowship Award, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2009
Kevin E Salhany Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2013
Leonard Berwick Memorial Teaching Award, Perlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2016
Chairman’s Award for Distinguished Service, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 2020
PennCares Commitment to Excellence Award, 2020-2022 COVID-19 Response, University of Pennsylvania, 2022
Memberships and Professional Organizations
American Medical Association, Member, 2003 - Present
American Society for Clinical Pathology, Fellow Member, 2004 - Present
Association for Molecular Pathology, Associate Member, 2007 - Present
College of American Pathologists, Fellow Member, 2008 - Present
Pennsylvania Association of Pathologists, Member, 2011 - 2012
Selected Publications
The University of Pennsylvania glioblastoma (UPenn-GBM) cohort: advanced MRI, clinical, genomics, & radiomics
Bakas S, Sako C, Akbari H, Bilello M, Sotiras A, Shukla G, Rudie JD, Santamaría NF, Kazerooni AF, Pati S, Rathore S, Mamourian E, Ha SM, Parker W, Doshi J, Baid U, Bergman M, Binder ZA, Verma R, Lustig RA, Desai AS, Bagley SJ, Mourelatos Z, Morrissette J, Watt CD, Brem S, Wolf RL, Melhem ER, Nasrallah MP, Mohan S, O'Rourke DM, Davatzikos C, Sci Data 9(1): , 2022
Evaluation of Positive Control Material for MGMT Promoter Methylation Studies
Nelson N, Priore S, Sondermann J, Herlihy S, Watt CD, Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 23(11): 1618, 2021
A Practical Comparison of Seven Molecular SARS-CoV-2 Methods
Gentile C, Richard-Greenblatt M, Fink J, Elkan M, Harris RM, Van Deerlin VM, Glaser L, Watt CD, Herlihy SE, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 22(11): S33, 2020
Transdifferentiation of lymphoma into sarcoma associated with profound reprogramming of the epigenome
Zhang Q, Orlando EJ, Wang HY, Bogusz AM, Liu X, Lacey SF, Strauser HT, Nunez-Cruz S, Nejati R, Zhang P, Brooks S, Watt CD, Melenhorst JJ, June CH, Schuster SJ, Wasik MA, Blood 136(17): 1980-1983, 2020, PMID:32518951
Evaluation of a Targeted Realtime Assay for Rapid Identification of IDH1 and IDH2 Disease-Associated Variants in Brain Tumors
Herlihy SE, Carlin A, Nasrallah NP, Watt CD and Van Deerlin VM, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 21(6): 1201, 2019
FLT3 Variants Near Codon 835: An Institutional Experience Comparing Rapid Restriction Digest Testing with Massively Parallel Sequencing.
Garces S, Nelson N, Watt CD, and Priore S, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 21(6): 1230, 2019
Clonal selection with Ras pathway activation mediates secondary clinical resistance to selective FLT3 inhibition in acute myeloid leukemia.
McMahon C, Ferng T, Canaani J, Wang E, Morrissette J, Eastburn D, Pellegrino M, Durruthy-Durruthy R, Watt CD, Asthana S, Lasater E, DeFilippis RA, Peretz C, McGary L, Deihimi S, Logan A, Luger S, Shah N, Carroll M, Smith C, and Perl A, Cancer Discovery 9(8): 1050-1063, 2019, PMID:3108841
Analytical validation of a highly sensitive, multiplexed chronic myeloid leukemia monitoring system targeting BCR-ABL1 RNA.
Brown JT, Beldorth IJ, Laosinchai-Wolf W, Fahey ME, Jefferson KL, Ruskin AK, Roth JJ, Cai L, Watt CD, Press RD, Yang F, Hedges JB, and Andruss BF, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 21(4): 718-733, 2019
Molecular neuropathology in practice: Clinical profiling and integrative analysis of molecular alterations in glioblastoma.
Nasrallah MP, Binder ZA, Oldridge DA, Zhao J, Lieberman DB, Roth JJ, Watt CD, Sukhadia S, Klinman E, Daber RD, Desai A, O’Rourke DM, and Morrissette JJD, Academic Pathology 6(): 2374289519848353, 2019, PMID:31206012
Gilteritinib induces differentiation in relapsed and refractory FLT3-mutated acute myeloid leukemia.
McMahon CM, Canaani J, Rea B, Sargent R, Watt CD, Morrissette JJD, Carroll M, and Perl AE, Blood Advances 3(10): 1581-1585, 2019
