Ibrahim Hussain, MD, has been appointed as the newest Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar, a three-year award that will help fund his work on biologic disc replacement and stem-cell based therapies for disc regeneration and repair. Dr. Hussain is an assistant professor of neurosurgery with advanced fellowship training in endoscopic, minimally invasive, and complex reconstructive spine surgery as well as a prolific researcher whose work in acellular and stem-cell based therapies has resulted in several high-impact publications, grants, and awards.
The three-year appointment will fund Dr. Hussain’s research with Roger Härtl, MD, the Hansen-MacDonald Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-director of Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The research is a collaborative endeavor being conducted with two colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca (Lawrence Bonassar, PhD, the Daljit S. and Elaine Sarkaria Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, and Michelle Delco, DVM, PhD, the Harry M. Zweig Assistant Research Professor at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine).
See NYP Advances story here about Dr. Hussain's work
Dr. Hussain completed his residency in neurological surgery at the highly competitive combined program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. This was followed by a minimally invasive and complex spine fellowship at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, which is among the busiest spine centers and Level 1 trauma centers in North America. There he specifically gained further expertise in the management of traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. Returning to New York after the fellowship, Dr. Hussain joined our faculty to work with Dr. Härtl, Dr. Bonassar, and Dr. Delco.
The Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar Award was established in 2007 with a $1 million gift to support an outstanding junior faculty member in neurological surgery. (See $1 Million Gift Establishes the Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar Award) It was created as part of the Weill Cornell Medicine Clinical Scholars program, which connects donors directly with faculty and their research programs. Dr. Roger Härtl was named the first Leonard and Fleur Harlan Clinical Scholar and held that title for two three-year terms, from inception to 2014. Dr. Jared Knopman held the position from 2014 to 2017, and Dr. Babacar Cisse was awarded the scholarship in 2018.