Professor Mitchel Berger MD FACS FAANS
Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery, UCSF, USA
Mitchel Berger is the Kathleen M.
Plant Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of
Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco
(UCSF), and is an expert in the fields of neurosurgery and
neuro-oncology. He also serves as Director of UCSF’s Brain Tumor
Research Center and Neurosurgical Research Centers.
After graduating from Harvard University in 1974, Dr. Berger earned
his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine. He
completed a clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology at UCSF, a fellowship
in pediatric neurosurgery at the Hospital for Sick Children of the
University of Toronto, and his neurosurgical residency at UCSF. In 1986,
he became Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of
Washington School of Medicine, after which he was named Associate
Professor (1990) and Professor (1996).
Dr. Berger has clinical expertise in treating adult and pediatric
brain and spinal cord tumors. He is a pioneer of intraoperative brain
mapping — a technique used to avoid functional areas of the brain during
surgical resection of a tumor. His work has enabled surgeons to
perform more extensive resection of tumor with less chance of producing
sensorimotor or language deficit.
Dr. Berger is a leader of translational research and is the Principal
Investigator of the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center’s Specialized
Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) award in neuro-oncology, funded
by the National Institutes of Health. He is also the Principal
Investigator of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Institute at UCSF –
a world-class research program dedicated to defining the poorly
understood basic biology of several types of childhood brain tumors and
improving therapies.
His specific research interests lie in identifying molecular markers
related to the progression and prognosis of glial tumors, as well as the
development of small-molecule therapeutic agents that can be
administered directly to the brain via convection-enhanced drug
delivery. Dr. Berger is also a co-investigator at UCSF’s Comprehensive
Cancer Center, where he works to develop immunoliposome-directed
targeted therapy for treating gliomas that express epidermal growth
factor receptors.
Dr. Berger is a member of the Board of Directors of the American
Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American Board of
Neurological Surgery. In 2009, he was awarded the prestigious Winn Prize
by the Society for Neurological Surgery. He is currently Secretary of
the American Academy of Neurological Surgery. He also currently serves
as a member of the National Football League Head, Neck and Spine
Committee, focusing on retired players’ issues and examining the
consequences of repetitive head injury and concussion.
During his distinguished career, Dr. Berger has served as President
of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, President of the
Society of Neuro-Oncology, President of the North Pacific Society of
Neurology, and Vice President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
He is an active member of numerous professional organizations, including
the American Organization for Cancer Research, the American College of
Surgeons, and the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.
A
prolific author, Dr. Berger has contributed over 450 scientific
articles to peer-reviewed journals, has edited 6 textbooks, and has
written over 80 chapters on various neurosurgical topics. He is
currently on the editorial boards of several leading journals including Neuro-Oncology, Neurosurgery, and American Journal of Translational Research.