Ali Alattar, MD

Ali Alattar, MD, MAS, joined the University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery residency program in July of 2019 after graduating from University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. While at UCSD, Dr. Alattar invested in additional training in clinical and biomedical research and earned a master of advanced studies in clinical research. Dr. Alattar studied biochemistry at Portland State University and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree.

Dr. Alattar cultivated an interest in neuro-oncology outcomes, especially regarding the impact of extent of surgical resection on survival and developed a novel biomarker platform for diagnosis of glioblastoma, during medical school. In residency, Dr. Alattar has continued to develop his interest in neuro-oncology and is also building his clinical expertise in spine surgery, skull base, and open and endovascular neurosurgery.

Dr. Alattar’s research interests include big data, cost-effectiveness, artificial intelligence, and machine learning as well as the application of augmented reality to image-guidance and development of unique biomarkers and molecular therapeutics in the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial aneurysms. He hopes to contribute to new cancer registries, develop clinical decision support systems, and discover genetic risk factors and molecular subtypes of disease.

In his PGY-5 year, Dr. Alattar trained in open and endoscopic skull base neurosurgery with Paul Gardner, MD, and Georgios Zenonos, MD. He continues his clinical research in tumor outcomes and biomarker discovery with a special emphasis on its application to skull base pathology.

Dr. Alattar was born, raised and attended college in Portland, Ore. before moving to San Diego for medical school. In his free time, he enjoys reading novels, cooking, hiking, running and weight lifting.