Neuropathology Fellowship | NYU Langone Health

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Pathology Fellowships Neuropathology Fellowship

Neuropathology Fellowship

Led by director Thomas M. Wisniewski, MD, NYU Langone’s Department of Pathology offers two post-residency fellowship positions in neuropathology. Our two-year fellowship is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Neuropathology fellows receive training in all aspects of the field, including extensive exposure to surgical neuropathology at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital, which has one of the nation’s largest centers for adult neurosurgery and pediatric neurosurgery.

Our lab accessions more than 2,000 neurosurgical specimens each year, including more than 800 tumors. The types of specimens are varied and include stereotaxic biopsies, gross resections, and specimens from patients with infection and epilepsy. Each year we examine more than 200 brains from pediatric and adult autopsies.

We are devoted to the diagnosis of all diseases of the nervous systems, and we treat every surgical specimen we receive with the utmost care and attention. We have expertise in all areas of neuropathology including inflammatory and infectious processes, tumors, and neurodegenerative disease.

Our team of neuropathologists include faculty who have additional training in molecular genetic pathology. We believe in using cutting-edge genomic methods in addition to traditional diagnostic techniques, and we apply novel genomic and molecular technologies to precisely understand a patient’s disease, better tailor therapies, and maximize therapeutic efficacy.

Our goal is to provide accurate and comprehensive pathology reports and clinically meaningful information to patients and their treating physicians in order to determine the most effective treatment strategy.

Funded Research Programs in Neuropathology

Neuropathology faculty lead active funded research programs in tumor pathology and neurodegenerative diseases, providing fellows with access to state-of-the-art research.

The laboratory of Matija Snuderl, MD, director of molecular pathology, studies cancer genetics and epigenetics and examines the molecular differences between tumors at the cellular level.

Dr. Snuderl’s team discovered several novel molecularly defined subtypes of brain tumors and contributed to the development of a DNA methylation–based classification of brain tumors, an approach that uses machine learning and epigenetic signatures to more effectively diagnose brain tumors. Dr. Snuderl’s laboratory is the first in the United States to provide this test to people with brain tumors.

The laboratory of Christopher M. William, MD, PhD, is investigating the molecular bases for synaptic dysfunction in two conditions, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Down syndrome (DS).

Taking advantage of mouse genetic models and one of the best-characterized circuits in the mammalian brain, the visual system, his laboratory is studying how synaptic exposure to elevated concentrations of soluble amyloid- β disrupts synaptic function and drives synapse loss in AD, and how the gene dosage abnormality of Trisomy 21 causes plasticity impairment and neurodevelopmental delay in DS. Identifying visual system plasticity defects in mouse models of each of the two conditions, the laboratory seeks to use these phenotypes to identify molecular pathways that drive dysfunction and ultimately to test therapeutic approaches to ameliorate or to prevent impairment in patients.

Dr. Wisniewski is director of NYU Langone’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the Conformational Disorders Laboratory, the Center for Cognitive Neurology, and the Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment.

Dr. Wisniewski’s group helped develop novel therapeutic approaches for AD, in particular immunotherapeutic approaches. His laboratory developed both active and passive immunization specifically targeting abnormal oligomeric protein conformation, as well as a means to stimulate innate immunity to ameliorate AD pathology. Dr. Wisniewski has also developed the first partially effective vaccine for a prion disease (chronic wasting disease), which was tested in an animal population naturally at risk for the disease.

Recently, Dr. Wisniewski developed an unbiased proteomic methodology that produces robust data utilizing archival formalin, fixed paraffin embedded human tissue, and used this method to perform the most extensive proteomic analyses of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau. In addition, Dr. Wisniewski was the first to hypothesis that apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays a critical role in AD pathogenesis, coining the term “pathological chaperone” for the role of apoE in AD. This work has led to more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and 30 issued patents.

David Zagzag, MD, PhD, is director of NYU Langone’s Microvascular and Molecular Neuro-Oncology Laboratory, a basic and translational research lab that seeks to elucidate the expression patterns, trigger mechanisms, and pathophysiological and molecular mechanisms implicated in glioma progression especially as it relates to hypoxia, tumor microenvironment, vascular regression, angiogenesis, and invasion.

Dr. Zagzag’s laboratory also aims to investigate novel genetic and molecular mechanisms linked to von Hippel-Lindau disease. The long-term goal is to discover new therapeutic approaches that would improve survival outcomes in patients with brain tumors.

In the second year of fellowship, fellows have six months with limited clinical responsibilities to conduct a research project. Fellows who feel inspired to continue work on a research project after the completion of the fellowship are encouraged to apply for additional funding from a principal investigator’s lab or from a variety of T32 programs available at NYU Langone, including T32AG052909 (Postdoctoral Research Training in Neurodegenerative Disorders and the Aging Brain), which is directed by Dr. Wisniewski.

Fellowship Application Requirements

Preference is given to candidates who have completed at least two years of anatomic pathology residency and to those who have completed neurology or neurosurgery training. Candidates who require additional anatomic pathology training must also apply to the Pathology Residency.

How to Apply

We have filled fellowship positions for the 2023–24, 2024–25, 2025–26, and 2026–27 academic years.

Learn more about how to apply.

Neuropathology Faculty

Arline Faustin, MD
Rebecca D. Folkerth, MD
Matija Snuderl, MD
Christopher M. William, MD, PhD
Thomas M. Wisniewski, MD
David Zagzag, MD, PhD

Current Neuropathology Fellows

Leah Roberts Geiser, DO
Misha Movahed-Ezazi, MD

Neuropathology Fellowship Alumni

2022

Kristyn Galbraith, MD
Researcher, Snuderl Lab, and Molecular Pathology Fellow, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

2021

Stephanie Livingston, MD

2020

Marissa Spino, DO
Attending, Apex Pathology, Lakewood, CO

2019

Ekrem Maloku, MD
Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Medicine

2018

Olga Krasnozhen-Ratush, MD
Neuropathology and Surgical Pathology Specialist, Baystate Health

2017

Benjamin Liechty, MD
Molecular Genetic Pathology Fellowship, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center
Attending Physician, Cornell University

2016

Cheddhi Thomas, MD
Faculty, Incyte Diagnostics Pathology Group

2015

Arline Faustin, MD
Associate Director, Neuropathology Core, NYU Langone’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

2014

Seema Shroff, MD, PhD
Pathologist, Central Florida Pathology Associates

Contact Us

For more information about the Neuropathology Fellowship, email Dr. Wisniewski, director, at thomas.wisniewski@nyulangone.org or email us at pathologyeducation@nyulangone.org.