Please join us on Friday, October 13, from Noon to 1:30PM at the Allegheny HYP Club for a lunch lecture with Dr. Robert Friedlander. You can register here.
Biography of Dr. Robert Friedlander
On June 1, 2010, Robert Friedlander, MD, MA, became the fourth Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Prior to joining the department, Dr. Friedlander was Professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School and vice-chairman of neurosurgery and associate director of cerebrovascular surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Presently, Dr. Friedlander is the Walter E. Dandy Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology and Neurobiology, and Co-Director of the UPMC Neurological Institute.
As a sign of his prominence as a clinician and scientist, Dr. Friedlander is one of a very select group of authors to have been invited by the New England Journal of Medicine to write both a basic science review (mechanisms of neuronal cell death), as well as a clinical review (management of AVMs).
Dr. Friedlander focuses on the operative management of complex cerebrovascular disorders and brain tumors and Chiari malformations. Dr. Friedlander has developed interests in the management of complex brain lesions (cavernous malformations and brain tumors) located within or adjacent to extreme eloquent areas. Using high definition fiber tractography (HDFT) has been able to tailor surgical approaches aimed at minimizing risks of development of new
neurological deficits.
Dr. Friedlander’s major research interests lie in the study of the mechanistic pathways of the caspase apoptosis gene family. He was first to identify activation and a functional role for the caspase family in a neurological disease (stroke) as well as first to delay disease progression and mortality in ALS and Huntington’s disease mice.
Dr. Friedlander’s research has received significant media attention including major work published in Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience and PNAS. His work has also been recognized through many academic awards, including the Neurosurgery Resident Award from the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the Bayer Cerebrovascular Award from the Joint Section of Cerebrovascular Surgery, the International Charcot Prize for Motor Neuron Diseases, the H. Richard Winn Prize, and the Award from the Academy of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Friedlander served as a member of the NINDS Council (2008-2012). In 2006, he was elected as a member of the prestigious American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Friedlander is only one of three neurosurgeons elected as a member of the American Association of Physicians. In 2018, Dr. Friedlander was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.