Research Summary

Dr. Berger's main clinical interests are the treatment of brain tumors in adults and children and of epilepsy related to brain tumors. He has extensive expertise in intraoperative mapping of the brain to identify the sites of motor, sensory, and language function and thereby avoid their involvement or injury during surgery.

Dr. Berger is Director of the Neuro-Oncology Surgery Program. His current research interests involve identifying molecular markers in gliomas as correlates of tumor progression and prognosis. He also works in conjunction with Dr. Krys Bankiewicz to test small molecule inhibitors in brain tumors using convection enhanced delivery. Other collaborations include functional mapping localization of language pathways in the brain in conjunction with Dr. Robert Knight and the Cognitive Neuroscience Graduate Program at UC Berkeley. Dr. Berger is currently the Principal Investigator of UCSF's SPORE Brain Tumor Program. He is also the Principal Investigator of a Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Institute award to study the origins and treatment of pediatric brain tumors. "

Research Funding

  • December 1, 2005 - July 31, 2024 - Noninvasive Metabolic Signatures to Improve Management of Molecular Subtypes of Glioma , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P01CA118816
  • September 20, 2002 - August 31, 2023 - Brain Tumor SPORE Grant , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P50CA097257
  • August 5, 1999 - May 31, 2023 - Cancer Center Support Grant , Co-Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P30CA082103
  • April 1, 1979 - February 28, 2007 - PROGRAMS FOR TREATMENT OF MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: P01NS042927

Education

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, A.B., 1975, Social Psychology
University of Miami, Miami, FL, M.D., 1979, Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, CA (UCSF), Dept. of Neurological Surgery, Brain Tumor Research Center (BTRC) Research Fellow 1983 - 1984 Neurosurgery
UCSF, BTRC, Neuro-Oncology Service, Clinical Fellow, 7/85 - 12/85, Neurosurgery
Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Pediatric Neurosurgery Fellow, 1/86 - 6/86, Neurosurgery

Honors & Awards

  • 1997-Present
    Joint Section on Tumors Advisory Council, American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons
  • 1997-1999
    Vice-President, Congress of Neurological Surgeons; President, Society for Neuro-Oncology
  • 2002-Present
    America’s Top Doctors, peer-nominated referral index from Castle Connolly
  • 2006
    Tumor Section, 2006 Ronald L. Bittner Lecturer; 2006 Farber Award Winner
  • 2007–Present
    Board of Directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons
  • 2007–Present
    Member of the American Board of Neurological Surgeons
  • 2010
    Vice-President, American Association of Neurological Surgeons
  • 2011
    President Elect, American Association of Neurological Surgeons
  • 2012
    President, American Association of Neurological Surgeons

Selected Publications

  1. Zhang Y, Lucas CG, Young JS, Morshed RA, McCoy L, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Daras M, Butowski NA, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Cha S, Wrensch M, Wiencke JK, Lee JC, Pekmezci M, Phillips JJ, Perry A, Bollen AW, Aghi MK, Theodosopoulos P, Chang EF, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS, Clarke JL, Chang SM, Molinaro AM, Solomon DA. Prospective genomically guided identification of "early/evolving" and "undersampled" IDH-wildtype glioblastoma leads to improved clinical outcomes. Neuro Oncol. 2022 Oct 03; 24(10):1749-1762.  View on PubMed
  2. Mohamed E, Kumar A, Zhang Y, Wang AS, Chen K, Lim Y, Shai A, Taylor JW, Clarke J, Hilz S, Berger MS, Solomon DA, Costello JF, Molinaro AM, Phillips JJ. PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway activity in IDH-mutant diffuse glioma and clinical implications. Neuro Oncol. 2022 09 01; 24(9):1471-1481.  View on PubMed
  3. Gleason JM, Klass SH, Huang P, Ozawa T, Santos RA, Fogarty MM, Raleigh DR, Berger MS, Francis MB. Intrinsically Disordered Protein Micelles as Vehicles for Convection-Enhanced Drug Delivery to Glioblastoma Multiforme. ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2022 08 15; 5(8):3695-3702.  View on PubMed
  4. Ali MB, Bai X, Gu IY, Berger MS, Jakola AS. A Feasibility Study on Deep Learning Based Brain Tumor Segmentation Using 2D Ellipse Box Areas. Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 15; 22(14).  View on PubMed
  5. Aabedi AA, Young JS, Chang EF, Berger MS, Hervey-Jumper SL. Involvement of White Matter Language Tracts in Glioma: Clinical Implications, Operative Management, and Functional Recovery After Injury. Front Neurosci. 2022; 16:932478.  View on PubMed
  6. Miano S, Fanfulla F, Nobili L, Heinzer R, Haba-Rubio J, Berger M, Cereda CW, Schmidt MH, Manconi M, Bassetti CLA. SAS CARE 1: Sleep architecture changes in a cohort of patients with Ischemic Stroke/TIA. Sleep Med. 2022 10; 98:106-113.  View on PubMed
  7. Autry AW, Lafontaine M, Jalbert L, Phillips E, Phillips JJ, Villanueva-Meyer J, Berger MS, Chang SM, Li Y. Spectroscopic imaging of D-2-hydroxyglutarate and other metabolites in pre-surgical patients with IDH-mutant lower-grade gliomas. J Neurooncol. 2022 Aug; 159(1):43-52.  View on PubMed
  8. Guagnano R, Romano F, Berger M, Fagioli F, Vallone V, Bello L, Vitale MC, Defabianis P. Long-term effect of anticancer therapy on dentition of Italian children in remission from malignant disease: A cross-sectional study. Eur J Paediatr Dent. 2022 Jun; 23(2):131-136.  View on PubMed
  9. Ali MB, Gu IY, Lidemar A, Berger MS, Widhalm G, Jakola AS. Prediction of glioma-subtypes: comparison of performance on a DL classifier using bounding box areas versus annotated tumors. BMC Biomed Eng. 2022 May 19; 4(1):4.  View on PubMed
  10. Choudhury A, Magill ST, Eaton CD, Prager BC, Chen WC, Cady MA, Seo K, Lucas CG, Casey-Clyde TJ, Vasudevan HN, Liu SJ, Villanueva-Meyer JE, Lam TC, Pu JK, Li LF, Leung GK, Swaney DL, Zhang MY, Chan JW, Qiu Z, Martin MV, Susko MS, Braunstein SE, Bush NAO, Schulte JD, Butowski N, Sneed PK, Berger MS, Krogan NJ, Perry A, Phillips JJ, Solomon DA, Costello JF, McDermott MW, Rich JN, Raleigh DR. Meningioma DNA methylation groups identify biological drivers and therapeutic vulnerabilities. Nat Genet. 2022 05; 54(5):649-659.  View on PubMed
  11. Haddad AF, Young JS, Morshed RA, Berger MS. FLAIRectomy: Resecting beyond the Contrast Margin for Glioblastoma. Brain Sci. 2022 Apr 25; 12(5).  View on PubMed
  12. Ius T, Ng S, Young JS, Tomasino B, Polano M, Ben-Israel D, Kelly JJP, Skrap M, Duffau H, Berger MS. The benefit of early surgery on overall survival in incidental low-grade glioma patients: A multicenter study. Neuro Oncol. 2022 04 01; 24(4):624-638.  View on PubMed
  13. Morshed RA, Young JS, Casey M, Wang EJ, Aghi MK, Berger MS, Hervey-Jumper SL. Sarcopenia Diagnosed Using Masseter Muscle Diameter as a Survival Correlate in Elderly Patients with Glioblastoma. World Neurosurg. 2022 05; 161:e448-e463.  View on PubMed
  14. Winkler E, Wu D, Gil E, McCoy D, Narsinh K, Sun Z, Mueller K, Ross J, Kim H, Weinsheimer S, Berger M, Nowakowski T, Lim D, Abla A, Cooke D. Endoluminal Biopsy for Molecular Profiling of Human Brain Vascular Malformations. Neurology. 2022 04 19; 98(16):e1637-e1647.  View on PubMed
  15. Ogino H, Taylor JW, Nejo T, Gibson D, Watchmaker PB, Okada K, Saijo A, Tedesco MR, Shai A, Wong CM, Rabbitt JE, Olin MR, Moertel CL, Nishioka Y, Salazar AM, Molinaro AM, Phillips JJ, Butowski NA, Clarke JL, Oberheim Bush NA, Hervey-Jumper SL, Theodosopoulos P, Chang SM, Berger MS, Okada H. Randomized trial of neoadjuvant vaccination with tumor-cell lysate induces T cell response in low-grade gliomas. J Clin Invest. 2022 02 01; 132(3).  View on PubMed
  16. Gerritsen JKW, Broekman MLD, De Vleeschouwer S, Schucht P, Jungk C, Krieg SM, Nahed BV, Berger MS, Vincent AJPE. Global comparison of awake and asleep mapping procedures in glioma surgery: An international multicenter survey. Neurooncol Pract. 2022 Apr; 9(2):123-132.  View on PubMed
  17. Gerritsen JKW, Broekman MLD, De Vleeschouwer S, Schucht P, Jungk C, Krieg SM, Nahed BV, Berger MS, Vincent AJPE. Decision making and surgical modality selection in glioblastoma patients: an international multicenter survey. J Neurooncol. 2022 Feb; 156(3):465-482.  View on PubMed
  18. Aabedi AA, Young JS, Zhang Y, Ammanuel S, Morshed RA, Dalle Ore C, Brown D, Phillips JJ, Oberheim Bush NA, Taylor JW, Butowski N, Clarke J, Chang SM, Aghi M, Molinaro AM, Berger MS, Hervey-Jumper SL. Association of Neurological Impairment on the Relative Benefit of Maximal Extent of Resection in Chemoradiation-Treated Newly Diagnosed Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Wild-Type Glioblastoma. Neurosurgery. 2022 01 01; 90(1):124-130.  View on PubMed
  19. Salas LA, Stewart TG, Mobley BC, Peng C, Liu J, Loganathan SN, Wang J, Ma Y, Berger MS, Absher D, Hu Y, Moots PL, Christensen BC, Clark SW. Phase I Study of High-Dose L-methylfolate in Combination with Temozolomide and Bevacizumab in Recurrent IDH wild-type High-Grade Glioma. Cancer Res Commun. 2022 Jan; 2(1):1-9.  View on PubMed
  20. Morshed RA, Young JS, Gogos AJ, Haddad AF, McMahon JT, Molinaro AM, Sudhakar V, Al-Adli N, Hervey-Jumper SL, Berger MS. Reducing complication rates for repeat craniotomies in glioma patients: a single-surgeon experience and comparison with the literature. Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2022 02; 164(2):405-417.  View on PubMed

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