7th Annual Scientific Meeting

(12th – 14th September 2018)
Pan Pacific Hotel, Perth, Western Australia

Organising Committee

Lakshmi Nagarajan
Jon Silberstein
Phillipa Lamont
Peter Walsh

International Speakers

Shinichi Hirose, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics, Head of both the Department of Pediatrics and the Research Center for Molecular Pathomechanisms of Epilepsy at Fukuoka University, and a member of the standing committee of the International Pediatric Association (IPA). His interests are in the molecular genetics of epilepsies. He has worked extensively on causative mutations and their molecular consequences in the neuroscience mechanisms underlying epilepsies, and has published extensively on the molecular pathomechanisms of epilepsies. He is the principal investigator on numerous clinical studies and has studied many childhood diseases including epilepsies, metabolic diseases, and inherited diseases.

Raman Sankar, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds the Rubin Brown Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Neurology. Dr. Sankar is a graduate of the University of Bombay, India. He obtained his PhD from the University of Washington in Medicinal Chemistry and his MD from Tulane Medical School. He trained in pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. He completed his training in neurology and pediatric neurology at UCLA. His laboratory research has addressed the mechanisms of seizure-induced injury and epileptogenicity in the developing brain. He has also undertaken studies to improve the throughput for screening compounds for antiepileptogenic action on the developing brain. Recent studies have demonstrated connections between the epileptic state, physiologic stress, inflammation and how these factors impact on the neurobehavioral comorbidities. He is a member of an active pediatric epilepsy program at UCLA that is well known internationally for many advances in pediatric epilepsy surgery. Dr. Sankar has authored more than 250 research articles, reviews and book chapters. He has also co-edited text books on pediatric epilepsy as well as the applications of basic science in epilepsy research. He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and an elected member of the American Pediatric society. Dr. Sankar is a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Foundation. He has been a member of the Commission on Neurobiology of the International League Against Epilepsy and presently serves on the Commission’s Task Force for the Workshop on the Neurobiology of Epilepsy (WONOEP).

Nicola Specchio, MD, PhD is Head of the Epilepsy Unit in the Department of Neuroscience at Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy, where within his role, he is responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with paediatric epilepsy. This includes the pre surgical evaluation of patients with drug resistant epilepsy and the selection of patients with genetic epilepsies. Dr Specchio’s main interest lies with seizure semiology and the classification of epileptic seizures and syndromes. He has published papers in many international journals including Epilepsia, Epilepsy Research, Epilepsy and Behavior and is currently responsible for several clinical studies regarding the invasive monitoring of patients with epilepsy and the genetic aetiology of epileptic encephalopathy in the first three years of life. Dr Specchio is a representative of International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Commission on European Affairs and of the Italian Chapter of the ILAE.

Tanuja Chitnis, MD, FAAN is a neurologist specialising in multiple sclerosis (MS). She is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and has a research appointment as a Scientist within the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at BWH. Her interest in children with MS led her start the Partners Pediatric MS Center at MassGeneral Hospital for Children where she serves as the Director, and PI of several studies to understand the causes of MS in children. Since 2010, she has served as the elected Chair of the International Pediatric MS Study Group, where she has led several initiatives in the study of MS in children including the launch of the first clinical trials in this population. She also serves as the Medical Director of the CLIMB Natural History study at the Partners MS Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) which follows over 2400 MS patients longitudinally. Here she oversees a team of analysts and postdoctoral fellows working to understand the causes, heterogeneity and response to treatment in MS patients. In addition to her clinical roles, she has authored over 200 publications and reviews related to MS and demyelinating disorders, and serves on the advisory board and steering committee of several MS-related organisations and studies. Throughout her career, her primary scientific contributions have been in immune mechanisms in MS, paediatric MS research and clinical trials, the CLIMB observational cohort study, hormonal mechanism in MS, and Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO).

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