Dr. Castellano joined the UPMC Epilepsy Division in 2018. He earned his MD and PhD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He investigated the role of epigenetics in hippocampal synaptic plasticity at the National Institute on Aging before completing a residency in neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in New York. He then completed a combined adult/pediatric epilepsy fellowship also at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Castellano is currently board certified in Neurology and Epilepsy.
Education & Training
- MD, PhD, Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai - New York, NY, Medicine
- Intern, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, Medicine
- Resident, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, Neurology
- Fellow, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, Epilepsy
Specialized Areas of Clinical, Research and/or Educational Interests
- Research: Epigenetics; Epileptogenesis; Pharmacoresistant Epilepsy
- Clinical: Critical Care EEG; Neurophysiologic Intraoperative Monitoring; Epilepsy Surgery
Board Certifications
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology: Neurology
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology: Epilepsy
Professional Organization Membership
- American Academy of Neurology
- American Epilepsy Society
- American Clinical Neurophysiology Society
- American Medical Association
Honors & Awards
- NeuroNext Fellowship
- American Epilepsy Society Fellows Program
- Leo M. Davidoff Medical Student Teaching Award
- Resident Scholarship to the AAN Meeting
- Outstanding Intern Award in Preliminary Medicine
Selected Publications
Castellano JF, Fletcher BR, Patzke H, Long JM, Sewal AS, Kim DH, Kelley-Bell B, Rapp PR. (2014) Reassessing the effects of histone deacetylase inhibitors on hippocampal memory and cognitive aging. Hippocampus 24: 1006-1016.
Castellano JF, Fletcher BR, Kelley-Bell B, Kim DH, Gallagher M, et al. (2012) Age-related memory impairment is associated with disrupted multivariate epigenetic coordination in the hippocampus. PLoS ONE 7(3):e33249. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033249
Castellano JF, Meyer JA, Lado FA. (2017) Adult-Onset Rasmussen’s Encephalitis: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges. Frontiers Neurology. Oct 25, 2017.
Samyuktha R. Melachuri BS, Carolyn Stopera, Manasa K. Melachuri BS, Katherine Anetakis MD, Donald J Crammond PhD, James Castellano MD PhD, Jeffrey R. Balzer PhD. Parthasarathy D. Thirumala, MD, MS “The Efficacy of Somatosensory Evoked Potentials in Evaluating New Neurological Deficits after Spinal Thoracic Fusion”; Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine 2020 Mar 6.