Dr. Keith Lanier Black, M.D.

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Dr. Keith Lanier Black, M.D.
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Biographical Information

• Born in 1957 in Auburn, Alabama.
• His father inspired him by giving him frogs,
  chicken hearts, and cow hearts to dissect.
• He has always loved science and once blew up his
  familys kitchen with his chemistry set.

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Biographical Information

• In the eighth grade his family moved from
  Tuskegee, Alabama to Cleveland, Ohio and he began
  to hang out in the labs at Case Western Reserve
  University.
• In high school he worked in a research lab doing
  organ transplants and heart valve replacements in
  dogs.
• Graduated from high school in 1975.

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Biographical Information

• At the age of 17 he published his first
  scientific paper on the damage done to blood
  cells in patients with heart valve replacements,
  which won the Westinghouse Science Award.
• Since then he has published more than 100
  scientific papers and has presented at nearly 200
  professional meetings.

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Racism

• His father, Robert Black, was principal of the
  segregated Boykin Street Elementary School in
  Auburn, Alabama, during the George Wallace era.
• When his father could not integrate the students,
  he integrated the faculty.
• When his sons wanted to swim in the all white
  pool he told them to do it.

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Higher Education

• Dr. Black completed an accelerated program at the
  University of Michigan Ann Arbor and received
  his undergraduate and medical degrees in only six
  years.
• He also completed his internship in general
  surgery and his residency in neurological surgery
  at the University of Michigan Medical Center in
  Ann Arbor.

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Professional Career

• Served o the University of California, Los
  Angeles faculty for ten years where he was
  Professor of Neurosurgery.
• In 1992 he was awarded the Ruth and Raymond
  Stotter Chair in the Department of Surgery and he
  was Head of the UCLA Comprehensive Brain Tumor
  Program.

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Professional Career

• In 1997 he joined the Cedars Sinai Medical
  Center and was awarded the Ruth and Lawrence
  Harvey Chair in Neurosciences.
• He currently serves as Director of Neurosurgery
  and Director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical
  Institute at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.

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Professional Career

• Dr. Black is also a professor and chairman of
  Department of Neurological Surgery at the
  University of California, Irvine Medical Center.
• He is also a member of several medical
  organizations and he is the founder of the North
  American Skull Base Society.
• He also serves on the editorial boards of several
  leading neuroscience journals.

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Neurosurgeon

• Dr. Black is a renowned brain tumor specialist
  and he averages 250 operations a year.
• Patients are referred to him from across the
  globe Europe, the Middle East, Australia, South
  America, and Japan.

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Neurosurgeon

• Dr. Black is very careful in his treatment of the
  brain. Before he operates he maps out the brain
  using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

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Neurosurgeon

• This type of MRI gives a three dimensional image
  of the brain and lets Dr. Black see where the
  boundary between the malignancy and the eloquent
  brain is. This type of MRI also allows him to
  map the best route through the brain to the tumor.

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Neurosurgeon

• Since the brain can swell and contract during
  surgery he uses techniques called somatosensory
  evoked potentials and direct potentials to
  recheck the boundaries.

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Neurosurgeon

• This process is like an electrician testing a
  circuit.
• He applies a mild electric current to the body
  and then he touches the brain.
• Whenever he picks up a current he knows where not
  to cut.
• He also performs the reverse, stimulating the
  brain and watching for movement in the body.

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Neurosurgeon

• Dr. Black has also pioneered new surgical
  techniques such as skull base surgery.
• Dr. Black also developed a new treatment to kill
  brain cancers without surgery. He uses
  functional MRI to map the tumor and then the
  tumor is zapped using microwaves.

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Researcher

• Dr. Black is most well know, however for his
  discovery that bradykinin is very effective at
  opening the blood brain barrier by making
  capillary walls leaky.
• The great thing about bradykinin is that it only
  opens the barrier to the tumor, not to the rest
  of the brain, which greatly increases the
  effectiveness of chemotherapy.

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Researcher

• Dr. Black and his colleagues have also been
  developing a tumor vaccine.
• A protein in the tumor called transforming growth
  factor beta, TGF beta, hides tumors from the
  body.
• His team takes cancer cells from the tumor after
  surgery, genetically engineers them so that they
  cannot produce TGF beta and then reinjects them,
  as a vaccine, into the patient.

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Researcher

• This allows the body to mount an immune response
  that is specific to the tumor.

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Researcher

• His dream is to find a cure for malignant brain
  tumors.
• The new techniques that Dr. Black has been
  developing could make cancer surgery of the brain
  obsolete.

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Family Life

• Dr. Black is married to Dr. Carol Bennett, a
  surgeon and urologist at UCLA. He met his wife
  in medical school.
• He has two children and despite his busy schedule
  of surgery and research he sets several nights a
  week aside to talk with his children and spend
  time with them.
• This type of balance is very important in life.

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Mentoring

• In order to get young people interested in
  science, Dr. Black and his staff developed a
  program called Brainworks, which gives seventh
  and eighth grade students an opportunity to visit
  the Neurological Institute.

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Political Activist

• Dr. Black has testified before the Senate to try
  and increase the funding for cancer research.
• The entire budget for the National Cancer
  Institute is only 2.4 billion dollars(1997).
• Our government spends equal that on one B1 bomber.

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Indiana Black

• Was nicknamed Indiana Black for his daring
  hobbies.
• Has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
• Trekked through the Himalayas.
• Has been on safari and rafted down the Zambezi
  River in Zimbabwe.
• He also sky dives and scuba dives.