Ali Jalali

Ali Jalali is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He serves as Surgical Director of the Pituitary Center and an Attending Physician at multiple Houston-based hospitals, including Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center and MD Anderson Cancer Center.

• MD and PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University
• Completed neurosurgery residency at Baylor College of Medicine and a fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Labs: Jalali Lab, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Jalali's clinical expertise includes surgery for pituitary tumors, gliomas, brain metastases, and rare brain tumors, utilizing advanced techniques such as awake surgery and neuro-endoscopy. His NIH-funded research focuses on glioma biology, particularly inherited genetic mutations (e.g., in the POT1 gene) and their impact on telomere maintenance, cell cycle regulation, and immune response. This work, highlighted in a 2021 Cancer Research publication, reveals sex-dependent biological pathways relevant to human glioma progression.

His lab adapts glioma models to study other brain tumors, investigates single nucleotide polymorphisms, and explores genetic manipulations for therapeutic development. Current projects aim to identify vulnerabilities in glioma pathways to improve treatment efficacy.

Key Funding & Affiliations: NIH grants, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Jalali Lab (Alkek Tower, Baylor College of Medicine).