Steven
Schiff , M.D. , Ph.D.

Dr. Schiff is a pediatric neurosurgeon with particular interests in understanding the physics of dynamical diseases of the nervous system and developing smart prosthetics to treat those diseases.

Dynamical Diseases are where the predominant symptomatology manifests as disordered interaction between the elements of the organ in question. His focus is on the nervous system, and grew out of his experience in treating epilepsy as well as the spasticity of cerebral palsy. The best surgical treatment offerings for such diseases involves destructive resection, and his goals for many years have centered around the science and engineering of alternatives to such therapies.

Finding better treatments to such dynamical disease requires understanding the underlying physical principles that govern the normal, and disordered, interactions between elements of the nervous system. He has spent considerable time focusing on the cellular interactions that make up pattern formation in seizures, Parkinson’s disease, and the origin of migraines (spreading depression). He is also deeply involved in learning how to use electrical stimulation to alter such interactions, so that we can design intelligent control algorithms. In human EEG, he has done fundamental work on the signal processing of seizures, discrimination analysis, real time modulation of stimulation based on EEG, and robotic brain-machine interfaces for assistive devices.

An area of special focus is in developing the interdisciplinary fusion of neural control engineering. He recently wrote a book, published by the MIT Press, exploring this intersection between control engineering and dynamical disease of the brain in much detail.

Lastly, he has begun a number of projects to work on improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurosurgical diseases in East Africa. Improving medical care with the constraints of limited resources, through better engineering and image analysis, is a goal that is of broad utility in both the developing and industrialized countries. Furthermore, the under-recognized impact of infectious diseases on creating diseases of the nervous system that we have treated neurosurgically, such as hydrocephalus and epilepsy, is one that he is devoting increasing effort to. He recently received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for Control of the Neonatal Septisome and Hydrocephalus in sub-Saharan Africa that will enable him to intensively pursue these issues over the coming years.