Mitchel S. Berger, MD, FACS, FAANS, is the Berthold and Belle N. Guggenhime Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He also serves as Director of UCSF’s Brain Tumor Center.
Dr. Berger 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. He is a leader of translational research and is the Principal Investigator of the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center’s Specialized Program of Research Excellence in neuro-oncology, funded by the National Cancer Institute. In addition to speech and motor mapping, his specific research interests lie in identifying molecular markers related to the progression and prognosis of glial tumor; correlating tissue biomarkers with novel imaging characteristics from physiologic and metabolic imaging; and developing in vivo gene editing for brain tumor treatment using CRISPR technology.
During his distinguished career, Dr. Berger has served as President of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), President of the Society of Neuro-Oncology, and President of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery. He has also been a director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery; a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons; and a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative.