Atom Sarkar

Atom Sarkar, MD, PhD, FAANS

Professor


Department: Neurosurgery

Education

  • MD - Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami (1998)
  • PhD in Biophysics, with honors, University of Miami
  • BS in Biology - Brown University

Awards & Honors

  • Lawrence Mervis, MD, Teacher of the Year Award, The Ohio State University
  • Scholarly Achievement Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement, Department of Neurological Surgery, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
  • Young Investigator Travel Scholarship, Academy of Molecular Imaging, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

Memberships / Professional Affiliations

  • American Association of South Asian Neurosurgeons
  • New York Academy of Sciences
  • Founding Member, American Academy of Nanomedicine
  • Executive Representative, Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Neuro-Oncology division.
  • Society for Neuroscience
  • Congress of Neurological Surgeons
  • Biophysical Society
  • American Association of Neurological Surgeons
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • AANS/CNS Section on Tumors

Atom Sarkar, MD, PhD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon with Global Neurosciences Institute. He is director of stereotactic, functional and epilepsy surgery, and director of the Philadelphia Voice Tremor Center.

Residencies

  • Neurosurgery - Mayo Clinic (2005)

Fellowships

  • Postdoctoral Fellowship - Columbia University (2004)

Atom Sarkar, MD, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Dr. Sarkar received his MD/PhD degrees from the University of Miami School of Medicine (Miami, FL). His PhD dissertation was conducted in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, with a focus on molecular neuroscience. This work culminated in cloning and characterizing neuropeptide receptors from the brain and earned research distinction from the Graduate School. It was at Miami that an interest in neurosurgery was galvanized.

A fellowship at Columbia University (New York, NY) in single molecule mechanics, nanotechnology and instrument design were the focus of his post-doctoral work. This post-doctoral fellowship was performed in the midst of a neurosurgical residency at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN).

Dr. Sarkar’s first faculty appointment was at The Ohio State University’s Department of Neurological Surgery as an assistant professor and director of neurological nanomedicine; ultimately, heading the Epilepsy, Tumor and Stereotactic programs at Ohio State University and was co-director of the Functional Neurosurgery program there as well.

Research

Grant Awards

2023-2025 - $275,000 - Co-investigator (PIs: Drs. Meucci, Klase, Jackson) - Adult human brain tissue cultures to study neuroHIV; Award Number: 1R21DA056309-01A1; Funding Agency: NIH/NIDA

Publications

Recent Publications

“Adult Human Brain Tissue Cultures to Study NeuroHIV”
Van Duyne, R., Irollo, E., Lin, A., Johnson, J. A., Guillem, A. M., O’Brien, E. V., Merja, L., Nash, B., Jackson, J. G., Sarkar, A., Klase, Z. A., & Meucci, O.
Cells, 13(13), 1127 (2024)

“Multi-scale signaling and tumor evolution in high-grade gliomas. Liu et al.”
Liu,J; Cao, S; Imbach, KJ;..., Ding, L; Philadelphia Coalition for a Cure, Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium
Cancer Cell 42, 1217–1238 (2024)

"Case Series Review of Neuroradiologic Changes Associated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy"
Na Tosha N Gatson, MD, PhD, FAAN, Mina Makary, MD, FACP, FHM, Shane P Bross, BS, MBS, Joseph Vadakara, MD, Tristan Maiers, PharmD, BCOP, Gino J Mongelluzzo, MD, Erika N Leese, PA-C, Cameron Brimley, MD, Ekokobe Fonkem, DO, Anand Mahadevan, MD, Atom Sarkar, MD, PhD, Rajiv Panikkar, MD
Neuro-Oncology Practice, doi.org/10.1093/nop/npaa079 (November 29, 2020)

"Voice Tremor Center: An Interdisciplinary Approach to a Challenging Problem"
R Sataloff and A Sarkar
Journal of Voice. Jul 30;S0892-1997(20)30204-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2020.06.016 (2020)

"Regulation of human glioma cell migration, tumor growth and stemness gene expression using a Lck targeted inhibitor"
J Zepecki, K Snyder, M Martinez-Moreno, JE Fajardo, A Fiser, J Ness-Myers, A Sarkar, S Toms and N Tapinos
Oncogene. DOI: 10.1038/s41388-018-0546-z (2018)

"Genetic susceptibility to cerebrovascular disease: A systematic review"
CJ Griessenauer, SFarrell, A Sarkar, R Zand, V Abedi, N Holland, A Michael, CL Cummings, R Metpally, DJ Carey, O Goren, N Martin, P Hendrix and CM Schirmer
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism. Nov;38(11):1853-1871. doi: 10.1177/0271678X18797958. Epub 2018 Sep 5. (2018)

"Long-term follow-up of a randomized AAV2-GAD gene therapy trial for Parkinson’s disease"
M Niethammer, CC Tang, PA LeWitt, AR Rezai, MA Leehey, SG Ojemann, AW Flaherty, EN Eskandar, SK Kostyk, A Sarkar, MS Siddiqui, SB Tatter, JM Schwalb, KL Poston, JM Henderson, RM Kurlan, IH Richard, CV Sapan, D Eidelberg, MJ During, MG Kaplitt, and A Feigin
JCI Insight. 2017;2(7).

* This physician's clinical practice is independent of Drexel University.