Current Weill Cornell Neurosurgery Residents

Joseph Carnevale, MD, is a chief resident in neurosurgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, with fellowship training in endovascular neurosurgery. He has particular interest in cerebrovascular disorders — including aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, brain tumors, and carotid occlusive disease — as well as neurotrauma, neuro-endoscopy, global neurosurgery, and medical device innovation. 

Training
Dr. Carnevale is a 2017 graduate of the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. He received his B.A. summa cum laude in biology and theology from Fordham University in 2011, then worked around the world — from mobile health clinics in rural Kenya to teaching in western China to clinical trials research at Weill Cornell Medicine Hematology-Oncology, and finally to the World Health Organization — prior to starting medical school.  As a medical student, Dr. Carnevale was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He earned honors in both service and research, including the 2017 Stanley Aronson Award for Excellence in Neuroscience, the Rhode Island Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Award, and the Fordham University Leadership Service Award.

Research 
Dr. Carnevale's research and publications have focused on a variety of neurosurgical areas, culminating in numerous publications, national conference presentations, and multiple ongoing clinical research projects. Currently, he is a leader in multiple clinical research efforts surrounding intracranial aneurysms, carotid occlusive disease, middle meningeal artery embolization for non-acute subdural hematomas, carotid body tumor embolization and resection, venous sinus stenting for idiopathic intracranial hypertension or tinnitus, intra-arterial chemotherapy for retinoblastoma and other neoplasms, as well as other areas of cerebrovascular, minimally invasive, and endovascular neurosurgery. See Dr. Carnevale's publications.

Andrew Garton received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he was a member of both the medical student honor society Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. As a medical student, Dr. Garton worked in Dr. E. Sander Connolly's Cerebrovascular Laboratory, where he was awarded a NIH/NIA T-35 grant for his investigation into biomarkers of functional outcome in intracerebral hemorrhage.

Dr. Garton earned his bachelor’s degree with honors and high distinction from the University of Michigan, with concentrations in the Psychology, Biochemistry, and Statistics departments. He completed his honors thesis under the direction of Dr. Nestor Lopez-Duran, PhD, investigating cognitive vulnerabilities to depression and the psychoneuroendocrine effects of sleep deprivation, among other projects. Dr. Garton has taught medical students in many roles, including leading workshops for third-year medical students aiming to improve communication skills for doctors having end-of-life and goals-of-care conversations.

Dr. Natasha Kharas received her MD and PhD degrees from McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. A native New Yorker, Natasha earned her undergraduate degree in neural science (with highest honors) from NYU before enrolling in the MD/PhD program at McGovern, where she was elected to the medical student honor society Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Kharas has been working with Dr. Casey Halpern’s lab at Stanford University to examine the role of intracranial stimulation in epilepsy, and with Dr. David Sandberg at McGovern on a translational research project examining the safety and pharmacokinetics of injecting the chemotherapy drug panobinostat directly into the fourth ventricle to treat posterior fossa tumors in children. She received an NIH F31 grant for her PhD dissertation research, which examined the neural underpinnings of how sleep improves cognitive performance; she also performed research that examined the neural basis for how unconscious visual stimuli alter behavior.

Alexandra Giantini Larsen is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, where she was vice president of the AANS medical student chapter and co-president of the Harvard Medical School chapter of the Association of Women Surgeons. She earned her bachelor’s degree with honors in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Larsen spent a year as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, Chairman of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where her research was focused on viral therapies for glioblastoma. She also has spent time as a researcher in the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital with Dr. Edward Smith and in the Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory at Johns Hopkins Hospital with Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa. She was an observer in our own department during her college years, when we recognized her emerging talents, and we are delighted to have her join us for her residency.