Ming Cheng, MD

Functional and Epilepsy Surgery

Ming Cheng, MD, attended the University of California at Berkeley. After graduation, he went across the San Francisco Bay and completed his medical degree at Stanford in 1998. After completing his neurosurgical residency training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a profound interest in the human neurophysiology that underlies brain function, he embarked on a two-year research fellowship in functional neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital as an AANS NREF fellow.

In June 2008, Cheng joined the Neurosurgery Foundation and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He now directs the sections of functional neurosurgery and epilepsy neurosurgery at Rhode Island Hospital. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and an assistant professor by courtesy in the department of neurosciences at Brown University, where he runs a basic research laboratory. 

Cheng's laboratory at Brown studies the neural basis of different cognitive processes that underlie diseases such as Parkinson's and other movement disorders, pain, epilepsy, depression, and other more rare neurological conditions. The goal of his laboratory is neurorestoration, the idea that therapies can be devised to restore the original function of the brain or spinal cord. A portion of Cheng's laboratory is located at Rhode Island Hospital, where he investigates how this research can be applied to help patients. 

Cheng specializes in surgery that improves the function of the nervous system through electrical stimulation. These surgeries include deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease, essential tremor and dystonia, spinal cord stimulation, intrathecal drug therapy, surgery for trigeminal neuralgia, epilepsy and more. Almost all of these therapies are offered in collaboration with comprehensive multidisciplinary teams of neurologists, psychiatrists, and other specialists to ensure that the best possible care is devised to meet the needs of each patient as an individual.

In addition to his clinical and educational work, Cheng has also contributed to a variety of professional publications.

Other Team Members

Our care is comprehensive not only in planning, but also in implementation. In addition to the physician specialists that together plan each patient's individual care, there is a dedicated, full-time staff of hospital and clinic-based team members that work with Cheng to deliver the care. 

An important member of this health care team is physician assistant Greg Pierce, who works with Cheng in the clinic. He helps answer patients' medical questions, orders prescriptions and assists in providing care after hospitalization. Crystal Nadeau is the coordinator of Cheng's clinical programs, and she can be reached at 401-490-4157.

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