Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Prasad Shirvalkar is a neurologist and pain medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco who directs the Pain Neuromodulation Laboratory in the department of neurological surgery. The overall goal of his research program is to determine how the subjective experience of chronic pain is processed in the human brain and spine towards developing neurostimulation technology to improve quality of life for patients. His lab recently discovered the first direct brain biomarkers to track chronic pain severity; they are using these insights to develop novel brain stimulation therapies to treat severe pain disorders in patients. Prasad earned his doctoral and medical degrees at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and completed a residency in neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as chief resident. He completed a fellowship in pain management at UCSF.