Dr. Saigal is an Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at UCSF. He is a neurosurgeon-scientist who specializes in complex spine surgery, including spinal cord injury, spinal deformity, spinal tumors, minimally invasive techniques, and neurotrauma. His research focuses on bioengineering approaches for treating spinal cord injury, especially on polymer-based approaches for controlled drug release, electrical stimulation and techniques to optimize spinal cord perfusion. He chairs the North American Spine Society Section on Spinal Cord injury. He started his career at the University of Washington, where he was PI of the Neurosurgical Biomaterials and Engineering lab.

Dr. Saigal completed neurosurgery residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He then completed an orthopedic spine deformity fellowship at Scripps and the San Diego Spine Foundation, focusing on less invasive techniques for spinal deformity. He completed a second spine fellowship at the University of Miami, focusing on minimally invasive spine surgery, including endoscopic fusion. Prior to residency, Dr. Saigal completed a PhD in medical engineering at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and an MD at the Tufts University School of Medicine. He also has a B.Sc. with highest honors in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and a M.Sc. in biomedical engineering from Aalborg University in Denmark.

He is the recipient of awards for research, teaching, and leadership, including the Global Spine Congress Best Papers, Boldrey Young Investigator Award, UCSF Neurosurgery Research and Rosegay awards, and AOA. His research has been funded by the NSF, Washington Research Foundation, UW Institute for Neuroengineering, Washington State Spinal Cord Injury Consortium, ITHS, and the Whitaker Foundation.