Scientific Leadership And Results

The Lisa Colagrossi Foundation Scientific and Medical Advisory Board (SMAB) is composed of leading neurosurgeons and healthcare professionals from institutions across the United States who specialize in Brain Aneurysms. The SMAB provides scientific and clinical expertise to guide us in planning and implementing our research initiatives and our information and education services for patients, their families and caregivers, and healthcare professionals.

All SMAB members contribute their expertise on a voluntary basis with no conflict of interest between their professional work and the volunteer work they do for The Lisa Colagrossi Foundation.

Howard Riina
Professor, Vice Chair of Neurosurgery NYU Langone
Director, The Lisa Colagrossi Foundation Medical Advisory Board

Howard A. Riina is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery as well as Director of the Neurosurgery Residency Training Program and Director of Endovascular Neurosurgery at New York University Langone Medical Center. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received undergraduate degrees from both Franklin and Marshall College and the University of Pennsylvania in a dual degree 5-year bioengineering program in 1987. He graduated from Temple University School of Medicine in 1993. Between his third and forth years of medical school he obtained an M.Phil in Biology (molecular neurobiology) from the University of Cambridge. He completed his surgical internship and trained in neurological surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with Drs. Eugene S. Flamm and M. Sean Grady. Dr.Riina has completed three fellowships: Diagnostic Neuroradiology with Robert Grossman, M.D. at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Interventional Neuroradiology with Alejandro Berenstein, M.D., at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery Beth Israel Medical Center, and Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Surgery with Robert F. Spetzler, M.D. at the Barrow Neurological Institute.

Dr. Riina specializes in the surgical and endovascular treatment of cerebrovascular disorders of the brain and spinal cord. He has particular interest in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations of the brain and spinal cord. He has also been involved in new treatments for acute stroke. Most recent interests involve the development of new minimally invasive devices and treatments for cerebrovascular and skull base disorders as well as intra-arterial chemotherapy for recurrent malignant brain tumors.

Allan Brook
Montefiore

Allan L. Brook MD, FSIR has been the Director of Interventional Neuroradiology at Montefiore Medical center since 1995. He leads a multidisciplinary team who treats various cerebrovascular diseases including aneurysms and stroke. He has a longstanding interest in teaching and is the Director of the Endovascular Simulation Center at the joint Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine Simulation Center. A past president of the American Society of Spine Radiology, and on the Editorial Board for Neuroradiology Journal.

Michael Lawton
President and CEO
Chair, Department of Neurosurgery
Robert F. Spetzler Neuroscience Chair

Michael Lawton, MD, is the President and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute and the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery. He is board certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

Dr. Lawton’s neurosurgical expertise includes cerebrovascular disorders (aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, cavernous malformations, and stroke) and skull base tumors. He has experience in treating more than 4,000 brain aneurysms, 800 AVMs, and 1,000 cavernous malformations. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Society of Neurological Surgeons, American Academy of Neurological Surgery, and World Academy of Neurological Surgery.

Peter Kim Nelson
NYU Langone

Dr. Peter Kim Nelson is the Director of the Neurointerventional Service at NYU Langone Medical Center. He graduated from Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans in 1986, and received post-graduate training in Radiology and Neuroradiology at the Mallinkrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis; and, in Interventional Neuroradiology under Alejandro Berenstein, MD and In Sup Choi, MD at NYU Langone Medical Center, New York. From 1993-2015, Dr. Nelson has been a staff physician in the Departments of Radiology and Neurosurgery at NYU, serving as Chief of the Neurointerventional Service and Director of the Neurology/Radiology/Neuroradiology Combined Residency Program at NYU School of Medicine from 1997-2011. Currently, he is Chief of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Neurointerventional Service, Bellevue Hospital-NYUMC, New York City Health and Hospital Corporation, New York.

Beyond his academic and clinical activities, Kim has been involved in several entrepreneurial efforts engaged in medical device development. As a founding member of SMART THERAPEUTICS and principle associate at CHESTNUT MEDICAL, he was intimately involved in the conceptualization, refinement, and clinical testing of Neuroform and Pipeline; and, was further instrumental in developing strategies to regulatory approval for these endoluminal devices. He has spoken and published widely on the treatment of cerebrovascular disorders, and, significantly, is among those who have shaped the modern endovascular approach to aneurysm treatment. Dr. Nelson was the 2012 recipient of the Luessenhop Award.

Matthew Potts
Northwestern University School of Medicine

MD: University Of California-San Francisco (2007)
Internship: University of California- San Francisco Medical Center, Surgery (2008)
Residency: University of California- San Francisco Medical Center, Neurological Surgery (2013)
Fellowship: New York University Medical Center, Neurological Surgery (2015)

Dr. Potts' clinical interests include cerebrovascular surgery, neurointerventional/endovascular surgery, brain aneurysms, brain arteriovenous malformations, brain cavernous malformations, stroke, cerebrovascular ischemic disease, carotid stenosis, intracranial atherosclerosis, spinal vascular disease, tumor embolization, and radiosurgery. His research interests include flow diversion for brain aneurysms, advanced imaging of arteriovenous malformations, and patient safety and outcomes studies.

Adnan Siddique
Vice-Chairman & Professor of Neurosurgery
Director, Neuroendovascular Fellowship Program
State University of New York at Buffalo

Director, Neurosurgical Stroke Service, Kaleida Health
Chief Medical Officer, The Jacobs Institute
Director, Toshiba Stroke & Vascular Research Center, UB

Dr. Adnan Siddiqui, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiology who joined UBNS in January 2007. He completed fellowship training in Interventional Neuroradiology, Cerebrovascular Surgery and Neurocritical Care from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He completed his Neurosurgical residency at Upstate Medical University and received his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Rochester and medical degree from Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Though Dr. Siddiqui is well trained in all general neurosurgical procedures, including brain tumor, spine and peripheral nerve surgery, because of specialized training, he has gravitated toward vascular diseases involving the brain and spinal cord.

Greg Thompson
John E. McGillicuddy Professor of Neurological Surgery
University of Michigan

Dr. B. Gregory Thompson, Jr. received his medical degree from the University of Kansas. Then, he completed his residency at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by fellowships at the National Institutes of Health - Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke and at Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ. In 1998, Dr. Thompson joined the faculty of the University of Michigan where he specializes in the treatment of stroke, cerebral aneurysm surgery, arteriovenous malformations, cerebrovascular surgery, cerebral vascular malformations, cavernous malformations, carotid endarterectomy/carotid stenosis/carotid occlusive disease, cerebrovascular surgery, cranial base surgery, acoustic neuroma surgery, and radiosurgery.