Clinical Neurophysiology, Epilepsy, Neuroimaging, and Surgical Neurology
Dr. Sara Inati is the Head of the Neurophysiology of Epilepsy Unit in the Surgical Neurology Branch. She previously served as the Chief of the EEG Section and Director of the Epilepsy Service for the Office of the Clinical Director, NINDS (2011-2021). She completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard College, and went on to receive her M.D. with honors from Dartmouth Medical School in 2003. She subsequently completed her medical internship at Lenox Hill Hospital, and her residency training in neurology at the Neurological Institute at Columbia University Medical Center. She continued on for two years of fellowship training in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at the Columbia Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.
She joined the NIH in 2010 as Staff Clinician with the NINDS neurology consult service then joined the EEG Section the following year, she was appointed as an Assistant Clinical Investigator to head the Neurophysiology of Epilepsy Unit in April 2021. She is also serving as the Program Director for the Epilepsy Fellowship Program and Assistant Program Director for the Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Program at NIH. She is board certified in Neurology with added qualifications in Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology.
Research Interests:
Dr. Inati's research interests include developing a better understand the pathophysiology of epilepsy, as well as to advance the evaluation and treatment of patients with medically refractory focal epilepsy. In close collaboration with the Surgical Neurology Branch, as well as other intramural investigators, she seeks to use neurophysiologic and neuroimaging techniques to localize epileptic foci and understand seizure networks to improve the presurgical evaluation and treatment of patients with medically refractory focal epilepsy. She also provides support to intramural NIH investigators from all institutes and centers for evaluation and care of patients with epilepsy, as well as providing clinical neurophysiological testing such as routine and extended EEG monitoring, evoked potentials, and intraoperative monitoring.
Lab Members:
- Antonio Ivano Triggiani, Ph.D. - Research Scientist
- Prabhakararao Eedara - Postdoctoral Fellow (visiting)
- Leela Srinivasan - Postbac IRTA
- Taylor Harris - Postbac IRTA
- Abhinav Vadassery - Postbac IRTA
Selected Publications:
- Withers CP, Diamond JM, Yang B, Snyder K, Abdollahi S, Sarlls J, Chapeton JI, Theodore WH, Zaghloul KA, Inati SK. Identifying sources of human interictal discharges with travelling wave and white matter propagation.(external link) Brain. 2023;146(12):5168-5181.
- Snyder K, Whitehead EP, Theodore WH, Zaghloul KA, Inati SJ, Inati SK. Distinguishing type II focal cortical dysplasias from normal cortex: A novel normative modeling approach.(external link) Neuroimage Clin. 2021;30:102565.
- Rentzeperis F, Abdennadher M, Snyder K, Dembny K, Abdollahi S, Zaghloul KA, Talagala L, Theodore WH, Inati SK. Lateralization of interictal temporal lobe hypoperfusion in lesional and non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy using arterial spin labeling MRI.(external link) Epilepsy Res. 2023;193:107163.
- Diamond JM, Withers CP, Chapeton JI, Rahman S, Inati SK, Zaghloul KA. Interictal discharges in the human brain are travelling waves arising from an epileptogenic source.(external link) Brain. 2023;146(5):1903-1915.
- Diamond JM, Chapeton JI, Xie W, Jackson SN, Inati SK, Zaghloul KA. Focal seizures induce spatiotemporally organized spiking activity in the human cortex.(external link) Nat Commun. 2024;15(1):7075.