Residency Training Program

Research Facilities

On the twentieth floor in the Annenberg building at The Mount Sinai Medical Center there are five neurosurgical laboratories. A sixth laboratory is on the sixteenth floor of the East (Ichan) Building.

The laboratory directed by H. Richard Winn, M.D., Professor of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience, is focused on basic cerebrovascular physiology and the role of Adenosine in the regulation of cerebrovascular blood flow. Techniques available include in vitro vessel preparation and closed cranial window paradigms. Dr. Winn has been continuously supported since 1974 by awards from the NIH, including a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Award, and the American Heart Association. Working with Dr. Winn are Research Assistants Tobias Kulik, M.D. and Yoshi Kusano, M.D., and two medical students, Shimon Aronhime and German Echeverry. Medical students and residents from Mount Sinai and other institutions also spend time in this laboratory.

The Gene Therapy and Brain Tumor laboratory is under the direction of Isabelle M. Germano, M.D., Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Oncological Sciences. It is located on the sixteenth floor of the Icahn Building, within the Department of Oncological Sciences. The research is currently funded by NIH/NCI and Industry. Its focus is translational research for brain tumors and the study of gene therapy for malignant brain tumors. In addition, a multi-disciplinary study is focused on evaluating stem cells for therapy of brain tumors. The lab is currently funded by an NIH grant. Luni Emdad, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, works with Dr. Germano in this laboratory. Other laboratory members include Zulekha Abdul Oadeer, B.S ., Assistant Researcher.

Another laboratory is devoted to investigation of mechanisms underlying early brain and cerebrovascular injury using rodent models of subarachnoid hemorrhage and ischemia stroke. This research is directed by Fatima Sehba, Ph.D., a Research Associate Professor, and is funded by the NIH. Other laboratory members include Artur Muller, M.S. and Rowena Flores, M.D., Research Coordinators.

A spinal cord injury laboratory, directed by Arthur Jenkins, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, is working to develop treatments that will ultimately be used on paraplegic and quadriplegic spinal cord injured patients.  The goal is to develop a model where the subjects are able to utilize their otherwise unresponsive limbs with the hope of making the patients fully independent.  Working with Dr. Jenkins is Senior Scientist, Stanislaw Sobotka, Ph.D. Taking advantage of computer technology, surgical techniques and their understanding of the nervous system, they are using the latest in microelectrode technology, electronic implants, to electronically bypass the spinal cord lesion.  This will essentially create an electronic nervous system and reconnect the nerves that are still functional (but not inn communication with the brain) in the patients' extremities. 

In addition, under a collaboration with the Brookhaven National Laboratories in Long Island, Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Sobotka are working with Dr. Avraham Dilmanian Ph.D. to develop new treatments for acute or chronic spinal cord injury utilizing high energy microscopic beams of radiation to prevent the scar that forms within an area of spinal cord injury that normally acts as a barrier to regeneration of axons across the area of injury.

A laboratory directed by Don Weisz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, focuses on neurophysiological and behavioral studies of movement disorders and an NIH funded project involving protection of brain and spinal cord during circulatory arrest.

There is a dissection laboratory under the direction of Chun Chen, M.D., with three fully equipped stations, including built-in microscopes, suction, and drills. Attendings, residents and visitors utilize the facilities for microscope experience and for specific dissection projects that have resulted in numerous publications, including two books.