George Ibrahim

Senior Scientist, Neuroscience & Mental Health

Dr. George Ibrahim is a paediatric neurosurgeon and the Abe Bresver Chair in Functional Neurosurgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, the Institute of Medical Sciences and the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is also a Senior Scientist in the Neurosciences & Mental Health program at the SickKids Research Institute and co-leads the Posluns Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention.

His clinical and research interests include the surgical treatment of medically intractable epilepsy, spasticity and movement disorders in children. He plays a leading role in the comprehensive epilepsy, dorsal rhizotomy and deep brain stimulation programs at SickKids. Dr. Ibrahim received several awards and recognitions including being named as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 in 2019.

Research

Dr. Ibrahim's research lab is dedicated to the study of neural networks in children with epilepsy and neurodevelopmental disorders through a combination of connectomic, computational neuroscience and machine learning approaches. The lab also leads several novel, translational clinical trials of neuromodulation in children. Dr. Ibrahim's work has been published in over 250 peer-reviewed journals and is funded by several organizations, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Achievements

• 2023: University of Toronto Early Career Teaching Award, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
• 2022 : Canadian League Against Epilepsy Junior Investigator Award, Canadian League Against Epilepsy, Kelowna, BC, Canada
• 2022: Bernard Langer Surgeon-Scientist Award, University of Toronto – Department of Surgery, Toronto, ON, Canada
• 2022: James T. Rutka Surgical Educator Award, University of Toronto – Department of Surgery, Toronto, ON, Canada
• 2022: President's Award, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
• 2019: Canada's Top 40 Under 40, Toronto, ON, Canada

1. Suresh H, Mithani K, Warsi N, Ochi A, Otsubo H, Drake JM, RutkaJT,Kerr E, Smith ML, Breitbart S, Yau I, McRae L, Chau V, Weiss S, Jain P, Donner E, Fasano A, Gorodetsky C, Ibrahim GM. Add-on deep brain stimulation versus continued vagus nerve stimulation for childhood epilepsy (ADVANCE): A partially randomized patient preference trial. Ann Neurol.  2024;96(2):405-411.
2. Arski ON, Wong SM, Warsi NM, Pang E, Kerr E, Smith ML, Taylor MJ, Dunkley BT, Ochi A, Otsubo H, Sharma R, Jain P, Donner EJ, Snead OC, Ibrahim GM. Epilepsy disrupts hippocampal phase resetting and impairs working memory. Epilepsia. 2022;63(10):2583-2596.
3. Arski O, Martire D, Young J, Wong SM, Suresh H, Kerr E, Ochi A, Otsubo H, Sharma R, Widjaja E, Snead OC, Jain P, Donner E, Smith ML, Ibrahim GM. Connectomic profiles and cognitive trajectories after epilepsy surgery in children. Neurology. 2022;98(22):e2233-2244.
4. Wong S, Arski O, Warsi N, Pang E, Kerr E, Smith ML, Dunkley B, Ochi A, Otsubo H, Sharma R, Jain P, Donner E, Snead OC, Ibrahim GM. Phase resetting in the anterior cingulate cortex subserves human attention and is impaired by epilepsy. Cereb Cortex.  2021;32(1):29-40.
5. Mithani K, Mikhail M, Morgan BR, Wong S, Weil AG, Deschenes S, Wang S, Byron B, Guillen MR, Ochi A, Otsubo H, Yau I, Lo W, Pang E, Holowka S, Snead OC, Donner E, Rutka JT, Go C, Widjaja E, Ibrahim GM. Connectomic profiling identifies responders to vagus nerve stimulation. Ann Neurol.  2019;86(5):743-753.

See a full list of George Ibrahim's publications.