UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery

Incredibly proud to celebrate our graduating chief residents Andrew Chan, MD, Michael Safaee, MD, and Ethan Winkler, MD, PhD! It's been an honor to train these three talented, hard-working individuals for the last 7 years. We look forward to the many future successes in their careers. Watch highlights from their virtual graduation ceremony

Nearly 9 months later and Cronutt still hasn't had a single seizure. Read the incredible story of Cronutt the sea lion, UCSF's Baraban Lab, and the world's first interneuron cell transplant treatment in a higher mammal. https://www.ucsf.edu//cellular-transplant-therapy-pioneere

"This technology allows us not only to understand [patients'] brain activity much better, in a personalized way, but also to improve deep brain stimulation by making it adjust to exactly what the brain needs at any time." Listen to UCSF Health neurosurgeon Philip Starr, MD, PhD on KCBS Radio's As Prescribed, as he discusses new technology for sensing abnormal brain activity, and delivering therapeutic brain stimulation to alleviate symptoms, for example in Parkinson's Disease. https://www.audacy.com//as-prescribed-new-way-of-measuring

On the front page of Nature Communications! The Baraban Lab uses CRISPR to generate 40 zebrafish lines, for in vivo analysis of single-gene mutations of catastrophic childhood epilepsy. Read the open access publication https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02221-y Explore the open-source database https://zebrafishproject.ucsf.edu/

Tune in to KCBS Radio today at 1:30pm to hear their interview with UCSF Health neurosurgeon Dr. Philip Starr on new advances in deep brain stimulation for treatment of Parkinson's Disease. Recording available https://www.audacy.com//as-prescribed-new-way-of-measuring

"Our goal is to develop a brain pacemaker that can nudge these depression circuits back into their healthy state and keep them there." Hear @UCSF research Katherine Scangos MD, PhD, speak to NPR science reporter Jon Hamilton about her team's Nature Medicine study, published yesterday, demonstrating a personalized brain stimulation approach to treating severe depression. The news segment includes remarks by the patient who participated in the study.

Congrats to UCSF Brain Tumor Center scientists Sabrina Ronen, PhD, Pavithra Viswanath, PhD and team on their recent Nature Communications publication! Their identification and validation of metabolic signatures for low-grade gliomas has the potential to provide non-invasive imaging methods for improved tumor diagnosis and treatment response monitoring. Metabolites produced by tumors can be detected earlier than structural changes seen on standard magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and may alert clinicians to the presence of a tumor so that it can be treated earlier in its progression. Read the open access article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20312-y

According to the CDC, 50% of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), such as concussions, go unreported or undetected. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the first rapid, hand-held TBI blood test that can give results within 15 minutes. Read more about this game-changing innovation in this ABC News article featuring an interview with Geoff Manley, PhD, MD, chief of neurotrauma at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and principal investigator of the team that helped develop the test: https://abcnews.go.com//traumatic-brain-injury-test/story

Register for the UCSF Brain Tumor Center's 1st Annual Update Symposium on 3/5/21! Hear the latest in treatment & research for brain tumors from leading experts, including guest speakers Carol Kruchko (Central Brain Tumor Registry of the U.S.), Priscilla Brastianos, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital) and Roel Verhaak, PhD (The Jackson Laboratory). Full program and free registration for this live webinar event: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/BTC2021

As we reflect on the past year, we’d like to thank and recognize our incredible team who has continued to advance neurosurgical care and research, while also meeting the challenges of a global pandemic. It is perhaps unsurprising then, that our #topnine Instagram posts from 2020 highlight talented individuals in our department who inspire all of us with their successes: From the top (left to right):... Neurosurgeon Edward Chang is appointed the new Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF! We celebrate the legacy of neurosurgeon Mitchel Berger during his last week as Chair of the Department. Neurosurgeon Doris Wang receives multiple awards supporting her groundbreaking research on movement disorders, and is recognized by the Muriel Steele Society as a leader for women in surgery. Ken Probst, our department’s medical illustrator, chooses his favorite four illustrations of the year. Our new Chair of the Department, Edward Chang is elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Every year, UCSF endocrinologist Lewis Blevins paints portraits of our chief residents as a graduation present. The Department recognizes neurosurgeon and meningioma expert Michael McDermott for 27 years of clinical & research excellence at UCSF. UCSF is recognized among the top 2 Neurosurgery & Neurology hospitals nationwide by U.S. News & World Report. The Department launches a new ‘Meet the Resident’ video series. Here, Arati Patel, MD shares her experience as a PGY-2. Photo credit: Barbara Ries Video credit: Todd Dubnicoff To keep up with Department news, follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ucsfneurosurgery/

Don’t miss this interview with our Department Chair, Edward Chang, MD, as he talks about his vision for a new era of neurosurgery at UCSF and what will shape the future of the field. From moving surgery beyond the limits of human hands to building a more inclusive community, here’s what is on his mind at the end of 2020: neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/edward-chang-new-vision-neurosurgery

This holiday season, consider adopting a lab at the @UCSF Brain Tumor Center! Watch to learn how the Diaz Lab is advancing brain tumor research, and how you can make a difference. To adopt a lab and support their research go to: https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/how-to-help/adopt-lab

Save the Date for the first annual UCSF Brain Tumor Center Update Symposium on March 5, 2021. View the full program and register at: neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/btc-symposium

What happens when abnormal blood vessels in the brain rupture and what are the treatment options? Watch pediatric UCSF neurosurgeon, Dr. Jarod Roland, walk through the resection of an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals' hybrid angiography operating suite.

Meet Cronutt, UCSF's first sea lion patient! Cronutt is a seven-year-old male sea lion who developed epilepsy after eating toxic algal blooms. Since he's unable... to survive in the wild, he's lived at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif., since 2018. But recently, his seizures got more severe. In a last-ditch effort to save him, his caretakers sought help from UCSF's Department of Neurological Surgery. They hoped that an experimental stem cell treatment developed by epilepsy researcher Scott C. Baraban, PhD, might save Cronutt's life. The cell-based therapy has been under development for over a decade, and Baraban's lab has reported great results in lab experiments. On Oct. 6 a team of 18 specialists, including veterinarians from Six Flags and neurosurgeons and researchers from UCSF, successfully completed a precisely targeted injection of brain cell precursors taken from pig embryos called neural progenitor cells into Cronutt’s hippocampus, the brain region responsible for seizures. Based on extensive observations in rodents, Baraban said, the injected embryonic cells should migrate through Cronutt's damaged hippocampus over the course of days and weeks, integrating and repairing the brain circuitry causing his seizures. Baraban's team has seen injected cells successfully spread through the hippocampus and repair damaged circuitry in the brains of adult rodents with temporal lobe epilepsy. The procedure reduced seizures in those animals by 90%, and helped with some other side effects of epilepsy, such as anxiety and memory problems. Cronutt is the first large mammal to receive this experimental therapy, and the researchers expect it to take about a month or so for the cells to fully integrate into Cronutt’s hippocampus. For now good news his veterinary team says he's been sleeping and eating well. Researchers will follow up to see whether his seizures decrease and whether his health and behavior improves. Read more about Cronutt and the experimental procedure to treat his epilepsy: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/gidpZE

In a year filled with unprecedented change and uncertainty, we are incredibly thankful to all those who continue to support UCSF Brain Tumor Center research & support services. Learn about the many ways to help: https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/how-to-help

Congratulations to the Chair of our department, UCSF Medical Center neurosurgeon Edward Chang, MD! Dr. Chang is among the 100 new members elected this year to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in the field of medicine. Dr. Chang's research focuses on the brain mechanisms that underlie the perception and production of speech. Fundamental discoveries made by the Chang Lab provide basis for the translational development of future speech prosthetic de...vices, with the aim of restoring function for patients with neurological disabilities such as paralysis and speech disorders. His other areas of research also include the improvement of seizure localization and epilepsy treatment; neural circuits of depression and pain; and potential targets for therapeutic neurostimulation. Congratulations also to the other distinguished faculty at UCSF this year who were recognized with this honor: Mark Anderson, MD, PhD; Aleksandar Rajkovic, MD, PhD; and Robert Wachter, MD. https://www.ucsf.edu//4-ucsf-faculty-elected-national-acad

This past month, the UCSF Brain Tumor Center hosted a live symposium event, featuring leading clinicians and scientists from around the world. The UCSF Cognition in Brain Cancer Symposium covered the latest in our understanding of cognitive impairment and rehabilitative treatment for patients with brain tumors. If you weren't able to attend the live webinar event, or want to re-watch any of the sessions, recordings are now available: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/CBC2020

Brain tumor patients, please join us for the Balancing Work and Brain Cancer webinar with Nicole Jarvis, LMSW, from @CancerAndCareer on Wednesday, 10/21 at 5:30 pm. Free, but pre-registration is required: https://calendar.ucsf.edu//balancing_work_and_career_webin

As #ChildhoodCancerAwarenessMonth comes to a close, we'd like to recognize and honor the children and families who are dealing with this every day. It remains ever critical to support research to develop and advance better treatments for these illnesses. Brain tumors, in particular, are the most common solid tumor in children, constituting the leading cause of cancer mortality in kids. An estimated 3,540 new cases will be diagnosed this year in the United States alone. "Th...e tumors we see in kids are often very unique," said Nalin Gupta, MD, Chief of Pediatric Neurological Surgery at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals. "The objective is really to take care of kids with brain tumors in a way that individualizes their treatment. And we think that is what's going to result in the best outcomes in the long term." Learn how you can help: https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/make-gift

Published today in Nature Communications, UCSF physician-scientist David Raleigh, MD, PhD and neurosurgery resident alum Stephen Magill, MD, PhD, share a comprehensive, multiplatform investigation of intratumoral heterogeneity in meningioma, identifying novel therapeutic targets. Meningioma remains the most common primary brain tumor, and although low grade meningiomas typically respond well to surgery and radiation therapy, high grade meningiomas are still poorly understood ...and often recur despite treatment. All chemotherapy trials to date have failed to show benefit for these tumors, so new treatment targets are urgently needed. Differences within tumors called intratumoral heterogeneity has increasingly been recognized as a source of resistance to cancer treatments,said Raleigh. To better understand the extent of variation, or intratumoral heterogeneity, in meningioma, Raleigh and his team analyzed 86 meningioma samples, collected from separate locations within 13 patients’ tumors. Learn more about their findings here: https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu//immense-variation-found Source: Magill et al. (2020) Nat Commun11:4803. [CC BY 4.0].

Thank you to everyone that joined UCSF Neuro-Oncology for Head For The Cure's San Francisco Virtual 5K last weekend! With over $26K raised, including for the caregiver and survivorship programs at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center, we thank everyone for their generous support. This event honors and acknowledges the San Francisco brain tumor community, including the many individuals and families impacted by a brain tumor diagnosis.... Watch the video: https://youtu.be/S2f95dwbNY4

Join us on October 1 for a special virtual symposium event! Featuring internationally recognized clinicians and researchers, the UCSF Cognition in Brain Cancer Symposium (#CBC2020) will examine and discuss the latest in our understanding of cognitive impairment and rehabilitative treatment for patients with brain tumors. See the full program here: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/CBC2020... Free registration here: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/RegisterCBC2020

It's not to late to register! Join us this week at the American Brain Tumor Association's National Conference, a free, educational meeting for patients, survivors, and caregivers impacted by a brain tumor diagnosis. UCSF neurosurgeon Shawn Hervey-Jumper, MD, will be giving two talks this year. Register here: https://www.abta.org/national-conference/

Join us next week (9/16) for the latest in our Living Well Webinar series. In the webinar, Donald Abrams, MD and Eduardo Rodriguez, MD will discuss current research and knowledge about medical cannabis for the management of brain tumor-related symptoms. This free event is open to all those living with brain cancer. Details here: https://calendar.ucsf.edu//cannabis_and_brain_cancer_webin

With an estimated 300 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States, chordoma is a rare tumor that occurs in the brain or spine. However in the past year, UCSF neurosurgeons have treated several patients with chordoma, each requiring complex surgical procedures to remove the tumor. Published today, a multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, and orthopedic surgeons at UCSF describe a rare case of thoracic chordoma, which required an unusual approa...ch and uncommon technique to resect. Read more: https://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu//spinal-chordoma-rare-tumor- Pictured here, UCSF neurosurgeons Praveen Mummaneni, MD (left) and Dean Chou, MD (right).

Join us next week for our Caregiver Program's new webinar series! Learn from physical & occupational therapists about strategies for fall prevention and recovery, transfers in car/home, and more. Open to all caregivers of patients with brain tumors, including those receiving care outside of UCSF: https://calendar.ucsf.edu//webinar_safely_caring_for_your_