Residency

Daniela Alexandru, MD 

Dr. Alexandru completed her bachelor's degree with honors in chemistry and French at Grinnell College in Iowa before attending University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She is interested in pursuing a career in research and has investigated apoptosis and anti-angiogenesis pathways at Genentech. Her research interests include novel anticancer therapies as well as new delivery systems for chemotherapeutics. 

Catherine Christie, MD

Dr. Christie obtained her bachelor's degree in French comparative literature from UC Berkeley and earned her MD degree from UC San Francisco. She also obtained an MPH degree from Johns Hopkins University in biostatistics. She completed her thesis investigating changes in platelet and erythropoietin levels as a model to predict the incidence of HIV-associated dementia. She speaks several languages and is interested in public health and injury prevention.

Amandip S. Gill, MD

Amandip Singh Gill, valedictorian of St. Genevieve High School (2001), graduated from University of California, Los Angeles with Highest Honors awarded in Neuroscience for his Senior Thesis, "Comparative Karyotyping and Molecular Cytogenetics on Pediatric Brain Tumors and their Derived Cancer Stem Cells." A Phi Beta Kappa inductee, he did extensive research as an undergraduate in oncology and neuro-oncology. He was also heavily involved in outreach activities and was awarded the Chancellor's Service Award for his 4 years of work in the community. As a medical student, Amandip continued his work in the basic sciences, becoming one of the first AANS NREF Medical Student Fellows and accepting an invitation to present a platform presentation at the 2008 AANS Annual Meeting. He received many awards in the basic and clinical sciences and was also inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Society in his junior year of medical school. Amandip decided to continue his training in the neurosciences here at the University of California, Irvine and joined our department as our first year neurological surgery resident in 2009. His research interests include the application of optical imaging modalities to neurological disease as well as the real time acquisition of epileptic foci and their electrical inhibition.

Sean Kaloostian, MD

Dr. Kaloostian grew up in Los Angeles, California. He obtained his Bachelor's degree from UC Riverside focusing on Biology, Psychology, and Sociology. At UC Riverside he was honored as a Rhodes Scholar Finalist. He then entered the Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences, obtaining his MD from UCLA Medical School where his interest in Neurosurgery was fostered. He completed a preliminary internship at UCLA in 2010-2011. Outside the hospital, Sean's hobbies include pick-up basketball and Atlanta Braves baseball. His inspiration remains his mother whose strength drives him every day.

Marlon S. Mathews, MD

Dr. Mathews graduated from Grant Medical College, India, moved to the United States, where he completed a fellowship in neuroscience specializing in spinal cord injury research at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He completed a general surgery internship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and came to UC Irvine on a postdoctoral scholarship to conduct research in neurosurgery and biophotonics. Now a resident in the Department of Neurological Surgery, he is interested in cell biology, translational neurobiology and biomedical engineering. He is working toward a career in academic neurosurgery.

Christopher M. Owen, MD

Dr. Owen, who is originally from upstate New York, completed a magna cum laude honors degree in philosophy at SUNY Binghamton before attending SUNY Upstate College of Medicine. He completed a surgical internship at Stanford Medical Center before joining UC Irvine's Department of Neurological Surgery as a post-doctoral researcher. He is interested in adapting novel brain imaging modalities to the study of epilepsy and will be leading the effort to use optical imaging techniques in in vivo models to gain new insight into the mechanisms of epilepsy.

Alexa L. Reeves, MD

After graduating from the University of Washington School of Medicine, Dr. Reeves completed her surgical internship at UC San Francisco. She began neurosurgical training at the University of Texas Medical Branch and later transferred to UC Irvine. She is interested in the potential applications of neural progenitor stem cells on spinal cord injury and is actively working at UC Irvine's Reeve-Irvine Center.