David Michael Brandman, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
To see if David Michael Brandman is accepting new patients, or for assistance finding a UC Davis doctor, please call 800-2-UCDAVIS (800-282-3284).
Locations and Contact
UC Davis Midtown Ambulatory Care Center
UC Davis Medical Group - Midtown
3160 Folsom Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95816
Phone: 800-2-UCDAVIS (800-282-3284)
Additional Numbers
Physician Referrals
Philosophy of Care
I believe in working together with my patients and their families to make sure that they’re well informed about their condition and understand their treatment options. I care deeply about making sure that my patients get the best possible neurosurgical they can.
Clinical Interests
Dr. Brandman is a fellowship-trained neurosurgeon who specializes in helping patients with movement disorders, epilepsy, chronic pain, and spasticity. He is an expert in the use of neuromodulation and minimally invasive approaches that minimize side-effects without compromising effectiveness.
Research/Academic Interests
Dr. Brandman’s research focuses on developing restorative neuroprosthetics to help people living with chronic neurological diseases such as stroke, spinal cord injuries, and ALS. He specializes in brain computer interface technology: devices that record brain signals from people living with paralysis, and translate their brain signals into commands that can be used to control objects in their environment. He is the co-director of the UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab (https://neuroprosthetics.faculty.ucdavis.edu). His research experience spans neurosurgery, computational neuroscience, and neural engineering.
Dr. Brandman has published two dozen publications in a variety of subjects and leading journals. He has written book chapters, been awarded numerous competitive research awards and scholarships, has presented dozens of abstracts at scientific meetings, and has been an invited speaker in multiple countries. He is active in medical education and public science outreach.
Division
Neurological Surgery
Undergraduate School
B.Sc., University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada 2007 (incomplete)
Medical School
M.D., University of Calgary Medical School, Calgary, AB, Canada 2010
Other School
Ph.D., Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence RI 2017
Other School
Postdoc, Engineering, Brown University, Providence RI 2018
Residency
Neurosurgery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada 2010-2020
Fellowship
Functional/epilepsy neurosurgery, Emory University, Atlanta GA 2020-2021
Simons Foundation Sacramento, CA Single-neuron-resolution population dynamics in human Broca’s area and motor cortex when preparing and producing speech (Co-investigator), Primary Investigators: Dr. Jaimie Henderson, Dr. Sergey Stavisky, 2021
Killam Trust Award Foundation, post-graduate scholarship, 2017
Brown Institute of Brain Science Chemers Neustein Graduate Award, 2017
Canadian Institute of Health Research Doctoral Foreign Study Award, 2015
Gurbani SS, Brandman DM, Reeves C, Boulis NM, Weinberg BD. Post-operative MRI findings in four patients undergoing percutaneous trigeminal tractomy. J Neural Imaging. 2021 Sep 1.
Brandman D, Hong M, Clarke DB. Preclinical Evaluation of the Stealth Autoguide Robotic Guidance Device for Stereotactic Cranial Surgery: A Human Cadaveric Study. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 2021;99(4):343-350. doi:10.1159/000512508. Epub 2021 Feb 10. PMID:33567429.
Brandman DM, Hosman T, Saab J, Burkhart MC, Shanahan BE, Ciancibello JG, Sarma AA, Milstein DJ, Vargas-Irwin CE, Franco B, Kelemen J, Blabe C, Murphy BA, Young DR, Willett FR, Pandarinath C, Stavisky SD, Kirsch RF, Walter BL, Bolu Ajiboye A, Cash SS, Eskandar EN, Miller JP, Sweet JA, Shenoy KV, Henderson JM, Jarosiewicz B, Harrison MT, Simeral JD, Hochberg LR. Rapid calibration of an intracortical brain-computer interface for people with tetraplegia. J Neural Eng. 2018 Apr;15(2):026007. doi:10.1088/1741-2552/aa9ee7. PMID:29363625.
Brandman DM, Burkhart MC, Kelemen J, Franco B, Harrison MT, Hochberg LR. Robust Closed-Loop Control of a Cursor in a Person with Tetraplegia using Gaussian Process Regression. Neural Comput. 2018 Nov;30(11):2986-3008. doi:10.1162/neco_a_01129. Epub 2018 Sep 14. PMID:30216140.
Brandman DM, Cash SS, Hochberg LR. Review: Human Intracortical Recording and Neural Decoding for Brain-Computer Interfaces. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2017 Oct;25(10):1687-1696. doi:10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2677443. Epub 2017 Mar 2. PMID:28278476.
Brandman DM, Haji FA, Matte MC, Clarke DB. Needs Assessment for Incoming PGY-1 Residents in Neurosurgical Residency. Can J Neurol Sci. 2015 Jan;42(1):17-24. doi:10.1017/cjn.2014.123. Epub 2015 Jan 7. PMID:25563071.