Clinical Advisors
John Boockvar, M.D.
Dr. Boockvar is Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College specializing in surgical treatment of brain and spinal tumors. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Boockvar directs the Laboratory for Translational Brain Tumor and Stem Cell Research at Weill. The goal of the lab is to make the latest advances in stem cell research available to patients with neurosurgical disorders. A major effort is directed at understanding whether tumor stem cells affect the sensitivity of gliomas to targeted therapeutics.
http://www.weillcornell.org/jboockvar/
Dr. Boockvar is collaborating with Professor Claudia Fischbach-Teschl to study neural stem cell migration and invasion and its relevance to glioma invasion and response to therapy. Dr. Boockvar has trained BME students and postdoctoral fellows in the isolation and characterization of these stem cells from patient-derived samples and serves as a clinical consultant for these projects.
William W. Frayer, M.D.
Dr. Frayer is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Associate Attending Pediatrician at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is interested in care and intensive care of newborn infants, especially infants with pulmonary and nutrition issues. Dr. Frayer served for 14 years as Medical Director for Information Services for New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is involved in the development of clinical information systems and medical records documentation.
http://www.weillcornell.org/wfrayer/index.html
Dr. Frayer has helped coordinate the department’s summer immersion term and has been especially helpful in expediting students’ transitions from the Ithaca campus to Weill for the summer. He has served as mentor for numerous summer immersion students and has helped enlist other Weill clinical faculty to the program. Dr. Frayer is a member of the BME department’s Advisory Board.
Roger Hartl, M.D.
Dr. Hartl is Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery and is Chief of Spinal Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Hartl studies the pathophysiology of brain injury. He is interested in the treatment of brain edema in brain-injured patients and the surgical management of patients with brain and spinal injuries.
http://www.weillcornell.org/rhartl/index.html
Dr. Hartl is collaborating with Professor Larry Bonassar to critically evaluate the performance of tissue engineered intervertebral discs developed in Professor Bonassar's laboratory. Dr. Hartl is working with graduate students in Professor Bonassar's group to develop rat models of intervertebral disc replacement.
John H. Healey, M.D., FACS
Dr. Healey is Chief of Orthopaedic Sevice in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an Attending Physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Dr. Healey specializes in the treatment of sarcomas and benign tumors of bone and soft tissue. His research focuses on sarcoma biology and developing new ways to deliver therapeutic compounds to tumors, as well as on improving joint replacements.
http://www.mskcc.org/prg/prg/bios/39.cfm
Dr. Healey serves as a clinical consultant for Professor Claudia Fischbach-Teschl's research on bone metastasis. Dr. Healey has also served as mentor to a BME PhD student during the summer clinical immersion term.
Constantino Iadecola, M.D.
Dr. Iadecola is George C. Cotzias Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College and Chief of the Division of Neurobiology. Dr. Iadecola studies the cerebral circulation, brain injury and stroke. He is interested in cerebrovascular biology and regulation of the cerebral microcirculation in the normal state and in disease. He is also interested in the molecular pathology of cerebral ischemic injury and the changes ischemia produces in gene expression.
http://www.cornellneurology.org/neurobiology/
Dr. Iadecola works with Professor Chris Schaffer to investigate the interactions between small strokes and Alzheimer's disease through studies in animal models. This work is revealing a vicious cycle of damage, where microvascular dysfunction in the brain exacerbates the pathology associated with Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease triggers cerebrovascular injury, with both injuring brain cells.
Michael Kaplitt, M.D.
Dr. Kaplitt is Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and Associate Attending Neurosurgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Kaplitt is director of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurosurgery, which applies gene therapy to the treatment of neurological diseases. He recently completed the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease for FDA approval. His laboratory is examining the mechanism of cell death in Parkinson’s and other diseases.
http://www.med.cornell.edu/research/mgkaplitt/biography.html
Dr. Kaplitt and Prof. Chris Schaffer are co-directors of the course BME 4110, “Science and Technology Approaches to Problems in Human Health,” which is taken by advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Dr. Kaplitt brings expertise in clinical practice as well as clinical and translational research to the course design. Dr. Kaplitt also collaborates with Prof. Moonsoo Jin to develop gene therapy systems.
Hollis G. Potter, M.D.
Dr. Potter is a radiologist and Chief of Magnetic Resonance Imaging at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Dr. Potter is involved in a variety of clinical and research projects in orthpaedic imaging, including critical evaluations of MRI in the clinical and research area.
http://www.hss.edu/physicians_potter-hollis.asp
Dr. Potter is collaborating with Professor Larry Bonassar on projects relating to meniscus repair and regeneration. Dr. Potter is working with graduate students in Professor Bonassar's laboratory on image-based design of meniscus implants.
Martin R. Prince, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Prince is Professor of Radiology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Chief of Magnetic Resonance Imaging at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Prince develops techniques that improve MRI both in research and in clinical care, such as contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography. He also develops methods to improve data acquisition and processing in MRI and to eliminate artifacts in MRI data.
http://www.weillcornell.org/mrprince/
Dr. Prince is collaborating with the BME department in several ways. He is a co-investigator with Dr. Yi Wang on an NIH grant that supports the summer immersion term for first-year BME Ph.D. students. Dr. Prince is helping the department in the design of its new MRI imaging facility on the Ithaca campus. He also routinely lectures in the department's imaging course, BME 6180, and he actively helps in the advising of BME Ph.D. students working on imaging problems in their doctoral research.
Sanjay A. Samy, M.D.
Dr. Samy is a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Guthrie Clinic, which is headquartered in Sayre, PA adjacent to the Robert Packer Hospital. Dr. Samy joined Guthrie in 2008.
http://www.guthrie.org/FindAPhysician/Physicians/default.asp?DOC=1815
Dr. Samy and several of his collaborators at Guthrie are working with Professor Jonathan Butcher to study valvular heart disease. Guthrie is a primary care facility, which provides access to extensive pre- and post-operative data on patients who undergo valve replacement surgery.
Andrew Schafer, M.D.
Dr. Schafer is the E. Hugh Luckey Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also Physician-in-Chief at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Schafer is interested in platelet biology and metabolism and abnormalities of platelet function in myeloproliferative disease. He also studies the role of hemodynamic forces on platelets and on vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells.
http://www.med.cornell.edu/research/aischafer/biography.html
Dr. Schafer is collaborating with BME faculty members Chris Schaffer and William Olbricht to study how blood flow to the brain is altered in disorders that lead to overactivity of the bone marrow and elevated blood hematocrit.
Theodore Schwartz, M.D.
Dr. Schwartz is Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and Attending Neurological Surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Schwartz specializes in the surgical treatment of brain tumors, pituitary tumors and epilepsy using computer-guided surgical navigation, minimally invasive endoscopy and microsurgery.
http://www.weillcornell.org/physician/tschwartz/index.html
Dr. Schwartz works with Prof. Chris Schaffer to study mechanisms of initiation and propagation of cortical seizures in animal models. This work also involves the development of a novel, laser-based surgical treatment for focal epilepsy.
Richard T. Silver, M.D., FACP
Dr. Silver is Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he is Medical Director of the Leukemia and Myeloproliferative Center. He is particularly interested in myeloproliferative diseases, which include polycythemia vera, chronic myeloid leukemia, essential thrombocythemia and myelofibrosis. He is currently the principal investigator at Weill Cornell of an NIH grant to study these myeloproliferative diseases. He maintains a keen interest in University affairs and is a Life Member of the Cornell University Council.
http://www.weillcornell.org/richardtsilver/index.html
Dr. Silver is collaborating with BME faculty members Chris Schaffer and William Olbricht and BME senior graduate student Puifai Santisakultarm to study the effects of myeloproliferative disease on cerebral blood flow. Dr. Silver participates as a clinical mentor in the department’s summer immersion term for first-year graduate students. He was Puifai’s immersion term mentor in summer 2008.
Jason Spector, M.D., FACS
Dr. Spector is Assistant Professor of Surgery (Plastic Surgery) at Weill Cornell Medical College. His clinical interests include reconstructive surgery and aesthetic plastic surgery. He also directs the Laboratory for Bioregenerative Medicine and Surgery, which conducts a number of projects on ischemia reperfusion, hydrogel scaffolds, microfabricated constructs for tissue engineering, and use of ultrasound for local delivery of medications.
http://www.weillcornell.org/jaspector/index.html
Dr. Spector is working with a number of BME investigators. He collaborates with Prof. David Putnam to implement new animal models of surgical procedures and to evaluate the efficacy of new surgical biomaterials. Dr. Spector and Prof. Jonathan Butcher collaborate on a project involving a minimally invasive, nondestructive biopsy device invented in the Butcher lab that could be used to detect margins between normal and cancerous breast tissue. Dr. Spector and Prof. Olbricht are developing an oxygen sensor to monitor viability of tissue flap transfers. Dr. Spector has also been a mentor to several BME graduate students during the summer immersion term at Weill.
Linda T. Vahdat, M.D.
Dr. Vahdat is Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and an Attending Physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Vahdat specializes in the treatment of breast cancer, especially metastatic disease. Her research interests include strategies to prevent metastases as well as new therapies for controlling breast cancer and preventing recurrence.
http://www.weillcornell.org/ltvahdat/index.html
Dr. Vahdat collaborates with Professor Claudia Fischbach-Teschl to identify the relevance of breast cancer microenvironmental conditions with patient-derived clinical samples.
Rasa Zarnegar, M.D.
Dr. Zarnegar is Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and Assistant Attending Surgeon at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Zarnegar’s specialty is the treatment of neuroendocrine disease as well as benign and malignant foregut disease. He is interested in the development of new technology for tumor localization.
http://www.weillcornell.org/razarnegar/index.html
Dr. Zarnegar is working with Prof. Moonsoo Jin on the delivery of siRNA to thyroid tumors and on in vivo imaging of thyroid tumors. He serves as a member of the special committee of BME graduate students.
