Epilepsy Surgery Clinical Fellow
Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine
Buenos Aires, Argentina
My name is Martin Merenzon, and I am the Clinical Research Coordinator in brain tumors at the University of Miami with Dr. Komotar from 2022 to 2023. One of my topics of interest is neuronal networks, connectivity, and the human connectome. This can be approached from multiple angles. I’m especially interested in how surgery impacts cognitive networks. In Miami, we are using a novel software that partly addresses this issue. It is still preliminary data, but I’m fascinated with the potential use that it has. My other areas of interest include Laser interstitial thermal therapy, epilepsy, and the impact and outcome of different learning strategies during neurosurgery training.
I am Argentinean, a fully trained neurosurgeon at the “Ramos Mejia” General Hospital, of the University of Buenos Aires, and I am passionate about my work. I have also done my year as chief of residents and then a clinical fellowship in functional neurosurgery at the Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires. Before coming to Miami I held an attending position as a trauma neurosurgeon in a level II trauma center, as well as I was in charge of the Neuro-oncology Unit at the “Ramos Mejía” Gen. Hosp.
In 2018, I started to collaborate with and learn from, an amazing research group that worked at the Institute of Oncology “Roffo”, of the University of Buenos Aires. This is one of the biggest fully dedicated cancer institutions in the country. My first steps in the area gravitated around the epidemiology of gliomas and access to healthcare by the uninsured low-income oncological population. We published a very interesting paper about it, where we showed that there was a delay in access to adjuvant therapies after glioblastoma surgery if the patient was uninsured, and that led to a worst overall survival. With the mentorship of the principal investigator, I won a personal 1-year grant from the National Institute of Cancer (2018-2019, Argentina) and another one from the Argentinean Medical Association (2019-2020).
I have conducted also in vitro glioblastoma cell cultures. We mainly focus on the role of the inducible nitric oxide synthase in tumorigenesis and its potential role as a therapeutic target. Thanks to this last study, I won a CNS Foundation Award that let me come as an observer at the University of Miami for three months (March-May 2022). I’ve presented this study as well as seven more at the 2022 SNO and CNS meetings.
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