A child’s nervous system is delicate yet has a remarkable capacity for healing. It is a privilege to help a child and their family through their time of need, and it is humbling to see the resilience that children can display in the face of illness.
About Peter A. Chiarelli, MD
Peter A. Chiarelli, MD, DPhil, is a pediatric neurosurgeon and associate professor of neurological surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's. Dr. Chiarelli is director of the Phoenix Children's Hydrocephalus Program and the Advanced Research in Neurosurgical Illness Program. He specializes in treating children with tumors of the brain and spine, as well as spina bifida, hydrocephalus, neurotrauma, and Chiari malformation. Dr. Chiarelli is also skilled in endoscopic approaches and fetal surgery to treat neurosurgical conditions, including cysts within the brain and spine, and developmental anomalies.
Dr. Chiarelli studied as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a doctorate of philosophy in neuroscience from Oxford University in Oxford, England, before continuing to his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Chiarelli completed his residency training in neurological surgery and a fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery in Seattle at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's. He is board certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery and The American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.
Holding a philosophy that neurosurgeons can impact the world both through their individualized patient treatment and through patient care innovation, Dr. Chiarelli founded the CSF Flow Dynamics Group (CFDG), with research based at the Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children's, as well as the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. The CFDG team is dedicated to improving children's lives by applying non-invasive imaging methods to clinical care in hydrocephalus, Chiari malformation and other disorders of impaired cerebrospinal fluid flow.
He further co-founded the Chiarelli/Upreti DIPG Research Laboratory, a collaborative translational benchtop lab whose goal is the design of novel therapeutic modalities that will one day make brain tumor surgery unnecessary. Dr. Chiarelli's research is geared toward the development of nanotherapeutics for the treatment and cure of pediatric brain tumors. He has published numerous articles and book chapters covering topics within neurosurgery and brain tumor nanotechnology and holds multiple patents in the field.
Dr. Chiarelli's work has secured grants and research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons, in addition to many other notable organizations. His research has been published in peer-reviewed publications, including Oncogene, JAMA Network Open, ACS Nano, Advanced Materials, Materials Today, the Journal of Neurosurgery, and the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Dr. Chiarelli received the Hydrocephalus Association Innovator Award and has been recognized continually as a Top Doc by Los Angeles magazine and Pasadena Magazine.
Dr. Chiarelli is a native of Phoenix and enjoys exploring Arizona with his family. He enjoys woodworking, carpentry and building in all forms, as well as cycling, music and spending time outdoors.
Medical School / Education
(MD) Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA
(DPhil) Oxford University, Oxford, England
Internship
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Residency
(Neurological Surgery) University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Fellowship
(Pediatric Neurosurgery) University of Washington / Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA
Neurological Surgery
American Board of Neurological Surgery
Top Docs, Pasadena MAGAZINE
Top Docs, Los Angeles MAGAZINE
Innovator Award, Hydrocephalus Association
Southern California Super Doctors Rising Stars
'Best of the Best' Professional Honor, Los Angeles magazine
Pediatric Section Hydrocephalus Association Award, American Academy of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (AANS/CNS)
Adise S, Li ZA, Ottino-Gonzalez J, Morys F, Chiarelli PA, Hershey T. "Distinct Patterns of Weight Gain, Age, and Subcortical Microstructure in Early Adolescence" JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jul 1;8(7):e2522211. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.22211. PMID: 40699574
Upreti M, Petrosyan A, Thornton ME, Hovsepyan A, Fernandez GE, Koos D, Tipre D, Byrum SD, Mackintosh SG, Al-Husseini J, Porras T, Tackett AJ, Zhang M, Johal MS, Erdreich-Epstein A, Durham S, Krieger MD, Margol AS, Grubbs BH, Chambers TC, Asgharzadeh S, Moats R, Chiarelli PA. "Multicellular Tumor-Stromal Interactions Recapitulate Aspects of Therapeutic Response and Human Oncogenic Signaling in a 3D Disease Model for H3K27M-Altered DIPG" Oncogene. 2025 Oct;44(39):3694-3712. doi: 10.1038/s41388-025-03533-7. Epub 2025 Sep 6. PMID: 40914769
Gutierrez M, Torres I, Ha J, Doyle E, Drastal M, Al-Husseini J, Borzage M, Wu TW, Tamrazi B, Nelson M, Yamada S, McComb GJ, Bluml S, Chiarelli PA. "Time-STAMP MR Imaging of CSF Motion for Evaluation of Chiari Malformation and Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy" J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2025 May 9;36(2):208-216. doi: 10.3171/2025.1.PEDS24526. Print 2025 Aug 1. PMID: 40344758
Chiarelli PA, Flyer BE, Quezada JJ, Rea N, Chu JL, McComb G, Krieger MD. "Shunt Timing in Low-Weight Infants in the Treatment of Hydrocephalus" J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2024 Mar 29;33(6):564-573. doi: 10.3171/2024.1.PEDS23333. Print 2024 Jun 1. PMID: 38552243
Ha JH, Borzage MT, Doyle E, Upreti M, Tamrazi B, Nelson M, Bluml S, Vanstrum EB, Johal MS, Chu JK, Moats R, Chiarelli PA. "Quantitative Non-Invasive Measurement of Cerebrospinal Fluid Flow in Shunted Hydrocephalus" J Neurosurg. 2023 Oct 6;140(4):1117-1128. doi: 10.3171/2023.7.JNS231326. Print 2024 Apr 1. PMID: 38564811
Vanstrum EB, Borzage, MT, Ha J, Chu J, Upreti M, Moats R, Lai LM, Chiarelli PA. "Development of an Ultrafast Brain MR Neuronavigation Protocol for Ventricular Shunt Placement." J Neurosurg. 2022 Jun 10;138(2):367-373. doi: 10.3171/2022.5.JNS22767. Print 2023 Feb 1. PMID: 35901769
Chiarelli PA, Revia RA, Steven ZR, Wang K, Kievit FM, Sandhu J, Upreti M, Ellenbogen RG, Zhang M. "Iron Oxide Nanoparticle-Mediated Radiation Delivery for Glioblastoma Treatment" Materials Today, 2022. 56, 66-78. ISSN: 1369-7021
Chiarelli PA, Bulte DP, Wise R, Gallichan D, Jezzard P. "A Calibration Method for BOLD fMRI Based on Hyperoxia" Neuroimage. 2007 Sep 1;37(3):808-20. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.033. Epub 2007 May 31. PMID: 17632016
Chiarelli PA, Johal MS, Casson JL, Roberts JB, Robinson JM, Wang HL. "Controlled Fabrication of Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Thin Films Using Spin-Assembly" Advanced Materials. 2001. 13, 1167-1171.
