Christoph J. Griessenauer was born and reared in Leogang, Austria. He received his medical science degree in 2008 from Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria. Augmenting his medical studies, Christoph further distinguished his education by completing multiple, consecutive research and clinical electives at Yale University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Mayo Clinic and the Barrow Neurological Institute.
His medical school thesis focused on the identification of the vacuolar H+-ATPase as an alternative pathway for gastric acid secretion to the H+/K+-ATPase. Subsequent to graduation from medical school, Dr. Griessenauer completed a postdoctoral fellowship in functional neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Griessenauer chose to continue his post-graduate residency training in neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.