• Home
• Mischer Neuroscience Institute
• Education
• Faculty & Staff
• Research
• Careers

The Mischer Neuroscience Institute is built on a foundation of long-term collaboration between Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Led by acclaimed Harvard researcher and neurosurgeon Dong H. Kim, M.D., and internationally renowned neurologist and stroke expert James C. Grotta, M.D., the Mischer Neuroscience Institute (MNI) has brought together a team of world-class clinicians, researchers and educators to advance the field of neuroscience through their insights and research findings. Patients come to the Institute from around the world for treatment of rare and common diseases of the brain and spinal cord.

The Mischer Neuroscience Institute was the first center in Texas and one of the only few institutions in the country to fully integrate neurology, neurosurgery, and neurorehabilitation in complementary programs offered through distinguished centers of excellence.

All programs at the Institute are staffed by nationally renowned physicians from The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, who are committed to raising the bar—locally, regionally and nationally—with first-rate clinical programs, continued growth and breakthrough research applied daily in the operating room and at the bedside. Their goal, simply stated, is to make Houston the internationally-recognized center for neuroscience care and innovation in the 21st century.

More than 2000 adult and pediatric procedures are performed in our surgical suites annually. Among them are innovative techniques that were once unimaginable: implantations of vagal nerve stimulators that allow patients with epilepsy to lead productive lives, resections of arteriovenous malformations that prevent life-threatening brain hemorrhage, and Gamma Knife radiosurgery that makes treatment of brain tumors safe, quick, effective and painless.

For 60 years, Houston has led the way in pioneering innovations to conquer heart disease. For 20 years, cancer has gradually yielded to medical advances developed in the Texas Medical Center.

Now, neuroscience is the next great frontier. The Mischer Neuroscience Institute will lead the way in a coordinated attack on the major neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, brain tumors, and head and spinal cord injuries.

An Unrivaled History of Firsts

• We were the first center to conduct a national, multi-center trial for hypothermia in head injury.
• We were the first neurosurgery center to offer all advanced modalities of treatment—expert micro-surgery, interventional neuroradiology/endovascular surgery, and Gamma Knife for complex issues.
• Since acquiring the first Leksell Gamma Knife in the region in 1993, our multidisciplinary team—combining neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists and medical physicists—have used the device to treat more than 1,700 patients for a wide range of abnormalities of the brain.
• We are the North American leader in studies of primary progressive multiple sclerosis and the most active center in Texas in the conduct of organized clinical trials of new therapies for MS.
• We were the first in the region to do vagus nerve stimulation, and we remain the number-one program in the United States in number of vagal nerve stimulators implanted in epilepsy patients.
• We were the first in Houston to provide community-wide stroke education and to organize the city's hospitals into designated stroke centers, working with the Houston Fire Department and local ambulance services to ensure rapid care for stroke patients.
• We brought the first clinical magnetoencephalography (MEG) sensor to Houston. It remains the only MEG in clinical use throughout Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. MEG is an important new tool for use in diagnosing and treating: epilepsy, brain tumors, AVMs, aneurysms, and any cortical brain lesions. Our epilepsy monitoring unit is one of only a few inpatient units in the country with the unique capability of simultaneously performing electroencephalography and polysomnography.
• We were the first center in the United States to test the use of ultrasound to improve clot lysis, the speed at which clots break down in the blood. Our sister facility, Memorial Hermann/TIRR, is the only center in Houston—and one of only seven designated centers in the nation—in the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network.

Specialized Centers of Excellence

• Cerebrovascular and Stroke
• Neuro Oncology
• Restorative Neurosurgery and Neurology
• Spine and Neuromuscular
• Critical Care and Neurotrauma
• Neurorehabilitation
• Pediatric Neurology and Neurosurgery