News

At Duke, she aims to advance translational neuroengineering and interdisciplinary collaborations to develop novel therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Duke University Health System is among Fortune’s list of America’s most innovative companies for 2025. DUHS ranks 66th overall and fifth among hospitals and health systems. The list ranks 300 U.S. companies based on product innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture.

David Hasan, MD,

In February 2025, Duke became one of the few hospitals to perform a robot-assisted ALIF. The spine procedure is minimally invasive and uses a front approach to treat spondylolisthesis -- a condition where one vertebra slips forward.

Duke is among the world’s best specialized hospitals for neurosurgery in 2025. The newest Newsweek survey ranks Duke Neurosurgery as 15th United States and 23rd in the world.

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.

Matthew Waitkus, PhD, a member of the Duke Neurosurgery faculty and a researcher in the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, has been awarded a Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society.