Dr. Susan L. Cotman is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant in Neuroscience in the Center for Genomic Medicine and the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Dr. Cotman has dedicated her career to investigation of Neuronal Ceroid Lipofusinosis (NCL), also known as Batten disease, for which she has contributed numerous genetic research tools and NCL model systems to the wider international research community. Her current research program is focused on three main areas: 1) advancing understanding of the molecular underpinnings of NCL, 2) leveraging NCL genetic advances to move from bench-to-bedside to improve diagnosis and develop disease-modifying treatments, and 3) to apply discoveries from NCL to related, more complex neurological disease. 

Dr. Cotman has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the inaugural Batten Disease Support and Research Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, a Dubai-Harvard Foundation Collaborative Research Award, an MGH Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award, the NCL Stiftung Neurodegeneration Research Award, a Sanofi iAward, and an NCL Stiftung Research Award.