Dr. Mittal joined the Department in July 2006 as Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery. He is a graduate of McGill University Faculty of Medicine and also completed his neurosurgical residency training at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill. Dr. Mittal completed a two-year clinical and research fellowship during his residency program. He subsequently did a one-year clinical fellowship in Epilepsy Surgery under the direction of Dr. André Olivier at the MNI. Dr. Mittal then completed a second subspecialty clinical fellowship in the Neurooncological Surgery and Image-Guided Neurosurgery program at Harvard Medical School under the direction of Dr. Peter M. Black. His primary clinical and research interests are in brain tumor surgery, epilepsy surgery, image-guided neurosurgery, and stereotactic radiosurgery. He is the co-leader of the Multidisciplinary Neurooncology Team at the Karmanos Cancer Center. Dr. Mittal has established a translational research laboratory at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. He will focus on two main research programs in brain tumor neurobiology and epileptogenesis. The first project will aim to identify specific gene expression patterns in gliomas using molecular cytogenetics and gene array experiments. The second major focus of the laboratory will be to determine the mechanisms involved in excessive neuronal activity in the peri-tumoral human cortex leading to intractable seizures. Other work in collaboration with Dr. Prahlad Parajuli will aim at investigation of dendritic cell biology with regard to tumor immunity and establishing an adoptive immunotherapy program for high-grade gliomas. Additional collaborative efforts with Dr. Saroj Mathupala will establish clinical trials of gene therapy of malignant gliomas via viral vector targeting. Dr. Mittal has over 17 referred publications and book chapters. He is board certified by the Royal College of Surgeons in Canada, the College of Physicians of Quebec, and is board eligible in the US. He is married to Dr. Monika Mittal, a pediatrician, and they have one daughter, Priya.