Duke Neurosurgery received $8.3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2024 to fund research to advance science and patient care. Based on this level of funding, the department was ranked ninth among neurosurgery clinical departments in the U.S. according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

Alexa Bramall, MD, PhD, is among five Duke University School of Medicine faculty members who have been selected to receive 2025 Physician-Scientist “Strong Start” awards. The awards program, funded with a gift from the Nanaline H. Duke Fund, supports promising, early career physician-scientists at Duke as they develop independent research programs.   

A new study published in Nature Neuroscience explores a genetic link between congenital hydrocephalus (CH) — a condition where fluid-filled spaces in the brain (ventricles) become enlarged — and autism. Duke Neurosurgery’s Tyrone DeSpenza, Jr., MD, PhD, was lead author of the study that found that mutations in the PTEN gene — already associated with autism — are a common cause of CH and ventricle enlargement.

Gerald A. Grant, MD, chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke University, has been named a director of the American Board of Neurological Surgery.