Gulay Alper, MD

Alper has been an academic child neurologist for 24 years and has a high level of experience in a broad spectrum of disorders of the nervous system. She joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh as a clinician in 2002 and established a new Clinical Neuroimmunology Subspecialty Program. Her expertise is focused on the brain inflammation. Her research areas of interest are pediatric demyelinating disorders, including multiple sclerosis, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, transverse myelitis, and optic neuritis.

Alper is a professor of pediatrics and director of the Clinical Neuroimmunology Program. Under her direction, this program has transformed patient management, improved the understanding of inflammatory disorders of the central nervous system, and introduced novel immune therapies for patient care at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Alper has performed key research studies and published extensively in pediatric neuroimmunology. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her knowledge, teaching, and scholarship.

Alper received her medical degree in 1982 from the Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. Alper completed four years of pediatrics residency training in the Department of Pediatrics at Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine from 1986 to 1990. She was appointed to a faculty position as clinical instructor in the Division of Ambulatory Pediatrics at Istanbul University from 1991 to 1992. She came to the United States in September 1992 and served as a visiting scholar in the Division of Child Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh from September 1992 to June 1993 and then entered and completed a child neurology residency from 1993 to 1996 in the same program. From 1996-2000, Alper served as an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Marmara University School of Medicine in Istanbul. She established a new Division of Neurology and Child Development in the Department of Pediatrics and served as chief for three years. Alper worked as a research fellow from 2000 to 2001 in the Neurogenetics Laboratory at the John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center. She is a board certified Child Neurologist, became an assistant professor in the Division of Neurology and Child Development Unit, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh in 2002. Alper was promoted to associate professor in 2013, and was promoted to professor in 2019.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

• Child Neurology Society – USA
• American Academy of Neurology
• International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group 
• The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers