Faculty Areas of Expertise

Adnan A. Abla, MD
Microdiscectomy; laminectomy; anterior cervical discectomy; spinal instrumentation and fusion; spinal tumors.

Eric M. Altschuler, MD
Spine surgery and neurosurgical trauma.

Nduka Amankulor, MD
Cancer biologist; gliomas and metastatic brain tumors

Jeffrey Balzer, PhD
Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring; cerebral blood flow.

J. Brad Bellotte, MD
Complex spine surgery; brain surgery.

David J. Bissonette, PA-C, MBA
Physician practice management.

J. William Bookwalter, III, MD
Minimally invasive surgery for the neck and back; artificial disc replacement; ulnar, and median nerve problems; peripheral and sacral tumors.

Jeffrey Bost, PAC
Neurosurgical physician assistant.

Daniel M. Bursick, MD
Spine surgery and neurosurgical trauma.

Diane L. Carlisle, PhD
Active research program in the mechanisms by which chemical exposures during pregnancy lead to childhood and adult disease.

Yue-Fang Chang, PhD
Longitudinal data analysis; survival analysis; statistical computing; research methodology; injury epidemiology.

Donald J. Crammond, PhD
The application of neurophysiological methods in the surgical treatment of movement disorders, functional localization in cerebral cortex; motor system physiology.

C. Edward Dixon, PhD
Mechanisms of induction and recovery of functional deficits following traumatic brain injury; neurotransmitter agonist therapies for recovery of post traumatic functional deficits; models of traumatic brain injury; clinical studies of pharmacotherapy in TBI patients.

Matt El-Kadi, MD, PhD
Complex spine disorders; spinal stabilization; spinal tumors; minimally invasive spine surgery.

Johnathan Engh, MD
CNS tumors, cranial neuroanatomy, neurosurgical technology and innovation.

David J. Engle, MD
Spine surgery and neurosurgical trauma.

Wendy Fellows-Mayle, PhD
Immunotherapy of brain tumors; gene therapy of brain tumors; epilepsy; intracranial pressure; craniosynostosis; traumatic brain injury.

Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda, MD
Endoscopic pituitary surgery; minimally invasive endoscopic skull base and brain surgery; open cerebrovascular and skull base surgery; brain tumors. Research focuses on surgical neuroanatomy (microsurgical neuroanatomy, endoscopic skull base anatomy, and white matter anatomy), advanced brain imaging techniques, and brain connectivity.

Robert J. Ferrante, PhD, MS
Neuropathology and mechanisms of neurodegeneration in adult-onset neurological diseases, with special interest in Huntington's Disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; drug development and translational therapeutic strategies, biomarker discovery, and human clinical trials.

Robert M. Friedlander, MD
Aneurysms, vascular malformations, brain tumors, carotid disease, cerebrovascular disease, Chiari malformation, spinal cord tumors. Research focuses on mechanisms of apoptosis, Huntington’s disease, ALS, and stroke.

Paul A. Gardner, MD
Endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery; pituitary tumors; minimally invasive surgery; microvascular decompression surgery; neurooncology.

Peter C. Gerszten, MD, MPH
Outcomes research applied to spinal surgical interventions; failed back syndrome; epidural fibrosis; stereotactic radiosurgery of spinal lesions; minimally invasive spine surgical techniques.

Avniel Singh Ghuman, PhD
The dynamics of brain interactions; autism; visual cognition; magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Paola Grandi, PhD
Gene therapy for brain tumors using HSV-based vectors; molecular targeting to tumor cells; molecular mechanisms of tumor cell migration and the role of miRNAs in cancer progression.

Stephanie Greene, MD
Brain tumors; vascular malformations; Moya Moya syndrome; Chiari malformation; spinal dysraphism; peripheral nerve disorders; fetal surgery.

Miguel E. Habeych, MD, MPH
Intraoperatory and critical care neurophysiological monitoring; neurophysiology and epidemiology of neuropsychiatric conditions.

Esther Jane, PhD
Understanding the combination of agents with distinct mechanisms of signaling inhibition to achieve enhanced effects on downstream signaling pathways to arrest the growth of glioma cells.

Brian Jankowitz, MD
Vascular neurosurgery.

Larry W. Jenkins, PhD
2-D electrophoresis and proteomics; neurotransmitter and trophic factor signal transduction; head trauma and cerebral ischemia.

Wenyan Jia, PhD
Biomedical signal and image processing; wearable electronic device; mobile health.

Hideyuki Kano, MD, PhD
Stereotactic radiosurgery for benign and malignant brain tumors, for vasucular diseases, and for pain and functional disorders.

Adam S. Kanter, MD
Minimally invasive spine surgery; endosurgical complex spine surgery; artificial disc technology; spinal tumors; experimental therapies for spinal cord regeneration.

David L. Kaufmann, MD
Spinal surgery and vascular neurosurgery.

L. Dade Lunsford, MD
Brain tumor management; gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery; movement disorders and trigeminal neuralgia; vascular malformations; sports medicine.

Joseph C. Maroon, MD
Microdiscectomy; lumbar laminectomy; anterior cervical discectomy; Arnold-Chiari Malformation; pituitary tumors; orbital tumors; acoustic tumors; brain tumors; concussion; sports medicine.

John J. Moossy, MD
The surgical treatment of intractable pain problems through neuro-augumentative and neuro-ablative procedures.

Ajay Niranjan, MD, MBA
Pre-surgical brain mapping using MEG, Radiosurgery for brain metastases; trigeminal neuralgia; arteriovenous malformation; meningioma; acoustic neuroma.

Hideho Okada, MD, PhD
Analyses of immunological environment in the brain and brain tumors; immunological therapy for brain tumors; gene therapy for brain tumors; roles of microRNAs in brain tumors and immunity.

David O. Okonkwo, MD, PhD
Brain and spine trauma; scoliosis; spinal deformity; minimally invasive spine surgery; experimental therapies for brain and spinal cord injuries.

Rekha Pal, PhD
Translational cancer research, biomarker establishment, embryonic stem cell, medulloblastoma, miRNAs and gene expression profiling, miRNAs and their interaction with the signaling pathways in tumor progression.

Jamie Pardini, PhD
Traumatic brain injury; epilepsy; concussion; movement disorders; neurovascular disorders; pre- and post-surgical neuropsychological outcomes in the neurosurgical population.

Daniel R. Premkumar, PhD
Molecular mechanisms of receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors and signaling in malignant human glioma cell lines.

Ian F. Pollack, MD
Pediatric neurosurgery; pediatric neuro-oncology; craniofacial surgery; congenital spinal abnormalities; brain tumor clinical trials.

Ava Puccio, RN, PhD
Secondary injury mechanisms following traumatic brain injury. Focused mechanisms include use of controlled normothermia and hypothermia, brain oxygenation, genetic expression and variances and clinical studies of pharmacotherapy in TBI patients.

Hong Qu Yan, MD, PhD
Acupuncture research and treatment in neurological diseases.

Shengjun Ren, PhD
Cell cycle, G0-to-G1 transition, cell growth control, cellular senescence, carcinogenesis of glioblastoma, and onset of neurodegenerative diseases.

R. Mark Richardson, MD, PhD
Epilepsy surgery, deep brain stimulation for movement and limbic disorders (including interventional-MRI guided DBS surgery), awake surgery in eloquent brain areas.

Michael J. Rutigliano, MD, MBA
Spinal, peripheral nerve disorders; brain tumors.

Raymond Sekula, Jr, MD
Cranial nerve disorders, Chiari malformation, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, skull base disorders, brainstem disorders, microvascular surgery techniques.

Mingui Sun, PhD
Biomedical engineering; biomedical instrumentation; biomedical signal, computational neurophysiology, image and video processing; computer-assisted neurosurgery and diagnosis.

Mandeep Tamber, MD, PhD
Epilepsy surgery; pediatric neuro-oncology; hydrocephalus; Chiari malformation; craniofacial disorders; clinical outcomes following epilepsy surgery; pediatric neuro-oncology clinical trials; prospective studies in pediatric hydrocephalus.

Parthasarathy D. Thirumala, MD
Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring; functional cortical mapping during awake craniotomies; neurophysiological monitoring during minimally invasive endonasal approach to skull base surgeries.

Elizabeth C. Tyler-Kabara, MD, PhD
Cerebral palsy; spasticity; dystonia; movement disorders; pediatric spinal disorders.

Daniel A. Wecht, MD, MSc, FACS
Vascular neurosurgery (aneurysms and vascular malformations); brain tumors; spinal and peripheral nerve microsurgery; trigeminal neuralgia, chiari malformation and hydrocephalus.

Matthew M. Wetzel, MD
Spinal surgery; spinal reconstruction; spinal fusion and instrumentation; spinal tumors; lumbar microdiscectomy; lumbar laminectomy; anterior cervical discectomy; peripheral nerve surgery; carpal tunnel release; ulnar nerve decompression; primary and metastatic brain tumor surgery

Yu Zhang, PhD
Pathogenetic mechanism and therapy development for neurodegenerative diseases; Huntington’s disease.