Elizabeth Tyler-Kabara, M.D., Ph.D.

Elizabeth C. Tyler-Kabara, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified pediatric neurosurgeon. She specializes in functional neurosurgery and minimally invasive skull base surgery and pioneered the use of expanded endonasal surgery of the skull base in extremely young children, providing them with a minimally invasive alternative for the treatment of a variety of conditions.

Tyler-Kabara earned her medical degree and doctorate from Vanderbilt University, where her graduate research investigated the neurophysiology of the corticostriatal synapse. She earned her bachelor’s, double majoring in biomedical and electrical engineering, from Duke University. After leaving Duke, she worked at the National Institutes of Health as a biomedical engineer, where she developed and tested molecular biology software, developed a strategic plan for implementing computer networking and recruited a head for the newly formed Computational Biology Group. She completed an internship in general surgery at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a residency in neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Pittsburgh VA Medical Center and a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s of Alabama.

Tyler-Kabara continues her research, which has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, DARPA, Craig Nielsen and Margot Anderson Foundations, The Copeland Fund and Pedal With Pete. She served as principal investigator on five grants, as co-investigator on 13 grants and was the co-principal investigator on the grant that initiated the brain-computer interface human trials at the University of Pittsburgh. Current efforts are focused on the use of brain-computer interfaces to restore function, employing microelectrodes recording and stimulation techniques in conjunction with brain-computer interfaces for control of neural prosthetics. These studies are conducted in collaboration with the Rehab Neural Engineering Laboratory, combining expertise in engineering, neuroscience and rehabilitation medicine. Her work was featured on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” and she has given 25 local lectures, 20 regional lectures, 10 national invited lectures and eight international invited lectures. She also has over 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 15 published book chapters and 80 published abstracts.