Babak Kateb MD, PhD (h.c.)

Babak Kateb, MD, PhD (h.c.), is a neuroscientist and serial neurotech entrepreneur with over 30 years of research experience. His research has focused on introducing advanced diagnostics and therapeutics into clinical neuroscience to rapidly identify and introduce game-changing technologies to treat neurological disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, brain cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other brain and spinal conditions.

He completed educational training at TUSOM and USC. His research fellowship was at the USC-Keck School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery. During his fellowship, he helped build a partnership between NASA/JPL and USC-Keck. He became a project lead for this collaboration between NASA, USC, and Caltech, bringing space technologies into neurosurgery, including infrared thermography for intraoperative brain tumor mapping, which made headlines.

He became the lead USC scientist who launched the first USA clinical trials for the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Bactiseal shunt Catheter, which received FDA approval and is now on the market. He also studied VLSI system design at USC’s Department of Electrical Engineering and the Ming Hsieh Institute. He was awarded an Honorary PhD from Uskudar University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Kateb established the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) and the World Brain Mapping Foundation while training as a research fellow at USC in 2002. Currently, he is the founding Chairman of the board of directors and CEO of SBMT. He is the President and Scientific Director of the World Brain Mapping Foundation (WBMF), Director of the National Center for Nano-Bio-Electronics (NCNBE), and Director of the Brain Technology and Innovation Park (BTIP), which is focused on integrating, translating, and commercializing nanotechnology, cellular therapeutics/stem cells, medical devices, AI, and imaging.

He leads the Global Physicians and Scientists (GPS) Humanitarian and the Veterans and wounded soldiers’ neurotech initiatives at SBMT.

He was a member of the advisory board of AiM Med Robotics and former Chairman of the science advisory board of Infinity Arc (cancer/radiosurgery technology) and MEGIN. He is a former advisor to the Isomer fund. Currently, he is President and CEO of Aramis Therapeutics.

Dr. Kateb was the Director of Research and Development in the Department of Neurosurgery at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center from 2006–2008, and a visiting scientist at NASA/JPL from 2003–2020.

He continued collaboration with NASA and published a pioneering nanoneurosurgery technique using NASA multiwall carbon nanotubes to activate macrophages for brain cancer immunotherapy.

While at the City of Hope and JPL, he received the NASA Tech Brief Award for his pioneering work on sniffing cancer cells using NASA’s electronic nose.

At NASA/JPL and Caltech, he patented the use of NASA Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing for predictive modeling in brain mapping, and UV/Multi-spectral imaging, which became the basis for next-generation AI Scope and intraoperative navigation systems.

In 2004, while at Caltech, he patented a cannula-pump-electrode hybrid Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system aiming to prolong the lives of BCI systems due to scar formation.

In 2010, he joined the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as a faculty/research scientist. He expanded his partnership between Cedars-Sinai and NASA/JPL/Johnson Space Center/Kennedy Space Center and established a breakthrough clinical trial using NASA UV imaging for intraoperative brain mapping.

He also invented a technology to microwave brain cancer, which received FDA approval for soft tissue. The technology could also be used for brain, liver, head and neck, prostate, and breast cancer.

He was also the Scientific Director and a Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at California Neurosurgical Institute (CNI) from 2015–2017, where he co-authored a landmark Nature Scientific Reports paper on “ac-magnetic field stimulated nanoelectroporation of magneto-electric nano-drug-carrier inside CNS cells.”

He helped establish and operate the CNI, including overseeing the budget of CNI, hiring neurosurgery faculty and staff, as well as overseeing and negotiating large contractual agreements with major insurance companies.

He has been collaborating with leading scientists at National Labs including LLNL, LANL, and ONL. His research at NASA and LANL involves the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Quantum, Neuromorphic Computing, and supercomputing for brain mapping and therapeutics, using LANL’s advanced ultrasonic technology for brain stimulation.

Dr. Kateb holds many patents in these areas.

He established a new Journal Collection with PLoS ONE, called PLoS ONE NeuroMapping & Therapeutics, for which he served as editor-in-chief.

He was a managing editor of NeuroImage-Brain Mapping and Therapeutics special issues in 2007, 2009, and 2011.

He was a member of the editorial board of Frontiers in Nanotechnology and a former associate editor of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

He is the Chief Editor of the inaugural Textbook of Nanoneuroscience and Nanoneurosurgery, published by Taylor & Francis in 2013, and the second edition published by Nature-Springer Publisher in 2025. He is recognized as a pioneer in the field of Nanoneurosurgery.

He is co-editor of the inaugural Neurophotonic and Brain Mapping volume published in 2017.

Dr. Kateb has been deeply involved in U.S. and international neuroscience legislation through his close collaboration with the U.S. Congressional Neuroscience Doctors and Precision Medicine Caucuses, as well as members of the Canadian, Australian, and Brazilian Parliaments.

He has chaired more than 13 annual congressional briefings/Brain Mapping Day at the United States Congress since 2012, in collaboration with the Neuroscience, Doctors, and Precision Medicine Caucuses.

He chaired one Brain Research Day at the Canadian Parliament in 2013 and one Brain Mapping Day at the joint sessions of the Australian Senate and Parliament in 2015.

In 2022, he met with members of Brazil’s parliament, became a member of the advisory board of the committee for Aging, and helped formulate and pass legislation to support the elderly and aging population.

His initiatives have impacted healthcare delivery to wounded soldiers and civilians in the United States.

He was one of the key players in the formulation of President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative and Chairman of the G20 Summit’s Neuroscience20 (Brain, Spine and Mental Health), holding a briefing on the topic two years before the BRAIN Initiative was signed into law by President Obama at the White House; Dr. Kateb was in attendance.

In 2014, he founded the African Brain Mapping Initiative. He is the President of N20 USA (2026).

He has been recognized by President Biden, former Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti, and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger for his dedication to neuroscience and neurotechnology.

He has received many commendations from Admiral Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, and General Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, for his dedication to supporting Veterans and Wounded Soldiers.

He has been the recipient of the 2008 NASA Tech Brief Award, the 2015 Pioneer in Medicine Award by the SBMT and WBMF Board of Directors, 2019 and 2026 USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering keynote awards, the 2021 UNESCO Award, the 2022 FILLER Innovation Award from Uskudar University, and the Neuroscience20 (N20) Global Neurotech Leadership Award in Indonesia 2022, India 2023, Brazil 2024, and South Africa 2025, among others.

Dr. Kateb is an avid marathon runner who has run and received 21 LA Marathon medals. He is an artist who has had art galleries, and his paintings have graced medical textbooks.

Dr. Kateb and his family have been devoted to their family and dedicated their lives to science, technology, healthcare policy, as well as philanthropy.