Dr. Norimichi Higurashi
Department of Pediatrics, Jikei University School of Medicine, Japan
Dr Higurashi graduated and obtained his MD (2001) and PhD (2013) degrees at Jikei University School of Medicine. He has spent most of his career taking care of sick children, particularly with neurological diseases.
In 2009, he started research on the genetics and cellular/molecular pathomechanisms of early onset epilepsies at Fukuoka University (Prof. Shinichi Hirose) in collaboration with Keio University (Prof. Hideyuki Okano). In a groundbreaking study, he succeeded in replicating the pathology of Dravet syndrome by using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells in 2013. He also contributed to the current understanding of many clinical aspects of PCDH19-related epilepsy.
Now, he continues basic research on pediatric epilepsies by obtaining research grants mainly from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development. He also served as a taskforce member for ILAE and was involved in the establishment of the 2017 seizure type classification.
Dr. Kelly Knupp
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, USA
Kelly Knupp, MD, MSCS, FAE is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Colorado.
She received her medical degree from the University of New Mexico – School of Medicine, completed her residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of New York followed by Pediatric Neurology Residency at Columbia University at Children’s Hospital of New York. After her residency, she trained as a Clinical Fellow in Pediatric Epilepsy at the Columbia Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Dr Knupp now practises at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, CO, USA and is the Director of the Dravet Program. Her interests are epileptic encephalopathies including Dravet Syndrome and infantile spasms. She was a founding member of the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium and continues on the board. This group focuses on developing collaborative research across the country for children with epileptic encephalopathies. She also serves on the board of the American Epilepsy Society and the medical advisory boards of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation and Coalition to Cure CHD2.
Prof. Rima Nabbout
Professor of Pediatric Neurology University Paris Cité, Paris, France
Rima Nabbout is Professor of Pediatric Neurology at Université Paris Cité and Director of the French Reference Centre for Rare Epilepsies at Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France.
She is a member of the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP-RD), leading the WP20 on innovation in clinical trials in rare diseases; of the European Reference Networks (ERN) EpiCARE steering committee and research council; and of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC). She is president of the scientific committee of the Banque Nationale de Données Maladies Rares (BNDMR ), coordinator of the task force on transition of the International League Against Epilepsy, and a core member of two task forces on nosology and Big Data.
Professor Nabbout’s research at Institut Imagine (Director of the chair of Epilepsy and leading the epilepsy program at INSERM U1163, Translational Research for Neurological Diseases) is focused on childhood rare epilepsies, aiming to syndromes’ delineation, deep phenotyping, defining disease impact and underlying mechanisms. She is principal investigator in clinical trials on rare epilepsies with development of patient-centred end-points and innovative methodologies for personalized therapies.
She has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and received Horizons 2020, FP7, national grants, and philanthropic funds, mainly from FAMA Swiss funds.
Dr. Suresh Pujar
Consultant Pediatric Neurologist, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK
Suresh Pujar is a consultant in pediatric neurology at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, UK and an honorary lecturer at University College London, UK.
His area of expertise is in complex epilepsy in children including epilepsy surgery, ketogenic diet and transition to adult service. His clinical and research interests include status epilepticus and inflammatory epilepsies.
Dr Pujar is the chair for the British Paediatric Epilepsy Group and UK Paediatric Epilepsy Program Board. He is actively involved in research and teaching activities.
Dr. Adam Strzelczyk
Consultant Neurologist, Epilepsy Center Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
Adam Strzelczyk is a neurologist, geriatrician and intensive care physician. His main research interests include health care research, clinical epileptology, electrophysiology, epileptic encepahlopathies and intensive care treatment of status epilepticus.
Dr Strzelczyk obtained his habilitation in 2014 at Philipps University Marburg on "Care, Cost of Illness, Morbidity and Mortality of Patients with Epilepsy." From 2006 he worked as a resident and from 2012 as a senior physician at the Epilepsy Center Hessen of the University Hospital Marburg in Germany.
Since 2015 he has been lead consultant and head of the Working Group on Health Economics and Outcome Research in Epilepsy at the Epilepsy Center Frankfurt Rhine-Main of the Goethe University Frankfurt.
He is a member of the executive board of the German ILAE chapter and serves as an editor of the Austrian, German and Swiss epilepsy journal Clinical Epileptology. He is also a member of the executive board of the Austrian, German and Swiss Working Group on Epilepsy Surgery, and as such, senior author of the Austrian, German and Swiss quality guidelines for epilepsy surgery.