Meet Dr. Yoshua Esquenazi, MD, FAANS

Dr. Esquenazi is an Associate Professor and Director of Neurosurgical Oncology at University of Texas at Houston Health.He is a neurosurgeon-scientist with fellowship training in epilepsy surgery and surgical neuro-oncology. During residency he worked in the medical school’s neuroimaging and electrophysiology lab and then went on to complete a fellowship in epilepsy surgery at the same institution under Nitin Tandon, MD. He subsequently completed a neurosurgery oncology fellowship at the prestigious Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is an author of numerous book chapters and articles, and he received many awards and recognitions during his academic training.

Dr. Esquenazi Levy received his medical degree at the Universidad Anahuac in Mexico City, graduating as valedictorian. During his studies he participated in student exchange rotations at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as the William J. Harrington Medical Training Programs for Latin America at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

He completed his neurosurgery residency training at the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, where he was neurosurgery chief resident and recipient of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Resident Award and the Standing Ovation Award from Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.

His lab focuses on investigating the tumor-gut axis in glioblastoma to identify microbiome signatures that could predict patient outcomes. His work also focuses on understanding the relationship between the gut microbiome/metabolites and radiation-induced cognitive deficit, and the possibility of improving therapies for glioma patients through gut microbiome manipulation.