Pittsburgh, July 1, 2011 -- The University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurological Surgery would like to welcome R. Mark Richardson, MD, PhD, and Robert J. Ferrante, PhD, to the faculty as of July 2011.

A specialist in comprehensive epilepsy surgery and deep brain stimulation, Dr. Richardson will serve as director of the department’s adult epilepsy surgery program, co-director of functional neurosurgery and director of the Translational Neurobiology Laboratory.

Dr. Richardson plans to develop a world-class adult surgical epilepsy program at UPMC by combining excellence in surgical and postoperative care with unique opportunities for patients to participate in brain research. Additionally, he will lead the development of an interventional-MRI-based deep brain stimulation implantation program at UPMC, one of the first of it’s kind.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Richardson completed a neurosurgical residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Virginia and completed his medical and doctoral education in the MD/PhD program at the Medical College of Virginia where his interest in adult neurogenesis led to an NIH National Research Service Award.

A renown expert in Huntington’s Disease research, Dr. Ferrante will work closely with department chairman Robert M. Friedlander, MD, in his Neuroapoptosis Laboratory.

In 1985, Dr. Ferrante’s HD research described a characteristic pattern of ‘selective vulnerability’ in cell types, showing some sensitive to degeneration, while others virtually impervious to the disease. These findings formed the basis of a widely accepted clinical neuropathological grading scheme for the disease. He currently is researching biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease to assess disease progression or therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials.

Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, Dr. Ferrante served as professor of neurology, pathology, and psychiatry at Boston University and director of the Experimental Neuropathology/Translational Therapeutics Laboratory at Bedford Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford, MA. He received both his doctorate and bachelor degree from Boston University.