In Memoriam: Christopher J. Moran, MD

Christopher J. Moran, MD, professor emeritus of radiology at WashU Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR), died Thursday, April 30, 2026. He was 78.

With a career spanning 45 years, Moran was a well-respected interventional neuroradiologist and a pioneer in life-saving flow diverter technology. His mastery of this technology played an integral role in the landmark Pipeline for Uncoilable or Failed Aneurysms study, a multicenter clinical trial that proved the safety and efficacy of the pipeline embolization devices for brain aneurysms. Moran was an expert on the pipeline embolization device and visited more than 200 medical facilities around the country and world as a procedure trainer and proctor.

Moran chaired the Continuous Quality Improvement Committee and led an interdepartmental effort to reduce the time between a patient’s arrival in a medical facility and the start of an intervention, which was recognized with the Team Award for Quality from Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Endovascular Acute Stroke Committee in 2017. He received additional awards and honors over the course of his career, including being elected a fellow of the American Heart Association, the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery and the American College of Radiology.

Moran earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1970 and his medical degree from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 1974. He completed both a residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in neuroradiology at MIR in 1978 and joined the faculty as an assistant professor of radiology in the same year. He rose to full professor of radiology and of neurological surgery in 2003. He retired from research and clinical practice in 2025.

Learn more about Moran’s life and legacy from WashU Medicine.