Michael Taylor, MD, PhD
Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine recently named Michael Taylor, MD, PhD, molecular biologist and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar, as Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Research Program at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Taylor will also remain clinically active as a pediatric neurosurgeon in the Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, at Texas Children’s Hospital. As Director of the Transformational Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Research Program, he will lead a team of investigators dedicated to pursuing novel therapies for particularly difficult-to-treat pediatric brain tumors, including medulloblastoma and ependymoma.
“Throughout my career, I have been inspired by the cancer research taking place at Texas Children’s, and I am honored to be joining this collaborative, cutting-edge team,” said Dr. Taylor. “While I am dedicated to curing medulloblastoma and ependymoma, most of all, I look forward to continuing my research into preventing these aggressive cancers. My vision is that no family ever has to face this devastating diagnosis.”
A Leader in Pediatric Oncology
In 2022, Texas Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Neurosurgery Division was ranked number 2 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is a national and international destination for neurosurgical care for children. With Dr. Taylor’s arrival, the neurosurgery team is now the largest and remains one of the most active pediatric neurosurgery teams in the nation, with very high surgical volumes, especially in pediatric brain and spinal tumors, epilepsy, and fetal surgery.
Just over a decade ago, Texas Children’s was the first hospital in the world to use real-time MRI-guided thermal imaging and laser technology to destroy lesions in the brain that cause epilepsy and seizures, and the institution’s experts pioneered groundbreaking fetoscopic spina bifida repair. It is also one of the few pediatric centers with focused ultrasound technology and is the first children’s hospital to be designated as a pediatric skull base multidisciplinary team of distinction.
Prior to joining Texas Children’s, Dr. Taylor was Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and a principal investigator in the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
