Speakers and Moderators

Denes V. Agoston, MD, PhD

Uniformed Services University

Bethesda, Maryland

Dr. Agoston is a physician-scientist specializing in the pathobiological consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI), including post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE), using biofluid-based protein biomarkers. After earning his MD degree, he taught anatomy, worked as an emergency physician, and volunteered in a biochemistry lab in Hungary. He won a Max Planck Fellowship, moved to Germany, and earned his PhD in neurochemistry at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, then established his lab at the NIH before moving to USU.

He combines his medical background with extensive methodological expertise to conduct clinical and translational research on various forms of TBI and its role in developing Alzheimer's Disease and PTSD. He is co-PI on multiple NIH, CDMRP, and DoD funded projects.

Edilberto Amorim, MD

University of California, San Francisco

San Francisco, California, USA

Dr. Edilberto Amorim is a neurologist with subspecialty training in critical care and epilepsy. At UCSF, he leads a research program on post-traumatic epilepsy focused on developing multimodal neurophysiology and neuroimaging biomarkers.

James Castellano, MD, PhD

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, USA

Dr. James F. Castellano is an epileptologist and physician-scientist whose work centers on the mechanisms, detection, and prevention of post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). His research has defined the burden of PTE, clarified clinical and electrophysiological risk factors, and characterized patterns of neurological recovery after traumatic brain injury. He has helped demonstrate that PTE is more prevalent than historically recognized and can independently hinder neural recovery trajectories. His group has also identified acute quantitative EEG biomarkers that distinguish individuals at highest risk for developing epilepsy after injury. Ongoing work in his laboratory focuses on developing next-generation biomarkers and advancing novel anti-epileptogenic therapeutic strategies.PT

Severn B. Churn, PhD

National Institutes of Health

Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Dr. Severn Churn serves as Program Director for Post-Traumatic Epilepsy at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. His research career has focused on understanding the neuronal mechanisms triggered by trauma and pathological excitation. Dr. Churn specializes in electrographic analysis of both acute and chronic brain activity following status epilepticus, traumatic brain injury, and aging. He is also dedicated to unraveling the signaling pathways that modulate changes in neuronal activity.

Lisa Coles, PhD, MS

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dr. Coles is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota and the Associate Director of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics at the Center for Orphan Drug Research (CODR). Her research focuses on translational and clinical studies in epilepsy, with a special emphasis on seizure emergencies and post-traumatic epilepsy. Her research interests include the use of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling and simulation to aid in drug discovery, development and clinical care.  She has served as the pharmacology lead on multidisciplinary projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense designed to identify biomarkers of post-traumatic epilepsy and evaluate anti-epileptogenic therapies. 

Ramon Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Chris Dulla, PhD

Tufts University

Boston, Massachussetts

The principal goal of my research is to understand how neurotransmission contributes to the function of neuronal networks. Neurotransmission is the most basic unit of neuronal communication. Disruption of the basic features of neurotransmission is associated with many neurological diseases. My lab aims to understand how specific properties of synaptic function contribute to network activity, and how changes in neurotransmission are involved in the pathology of disease states such as epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. We are specifically interested in astrocyte glutamate uptake, astrocyte/neuron interactions, GABAergic interneuron development, and metabolic control of neuronal activity. Using advanced neurotransmitter imaging, electrophysiological techniques, and more, my lab aims to answer questions about how neuronal network function is shaped by some of the most basic parameters of neurotransmission. We hope to contribute new understanding and novel therapies to treat epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and other devastating neurological diseases.

Dominique Duncan, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Dominique Duncan, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology, Bioengineering, and Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania, where she leads transformative research at the intersection of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and informatics with a focus on post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). With a multidisciplinary background spanning mathematics, electrical engineering, and neuroscience, Dr. Duncan has dedicated her career to developing innovative informatics infrastructures that unlock the potential of large-scale, multimodal biomedical data. Her work addresses critical challenges in data standardization, harmonization, analysis, and sharing—paving the way for collaborative, data-driven discovery in PTE and other neurological disorders. Her lab has implemented scalable analytic tools that leverage machine learning, signal processing, and geometry-based methods to extract meaningful patterns from high-dimensional datasets, including EEG and MRI. These tools are embedded within user-friendly interfaces, allowing researchers to interact dynamically with data, run customized analyses, and visualize complex relationships across modalities.

Tobias Engel, PhD

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

Our focus is on the study of pathological changes which occur after brain damage and which lead to the development of epileptic seizures. The main focus here is the study of purinergic signaling (with the main emphasis on the ATP-gated P2X7 receptor).

Alon Friedman, MD, PhD

Dalhousie University

Halifax, Canada

Dr. Alon Friedman is a Professor of Neuroscience and Dennis Chair in Epilepsy Research at Dalhousie University, Halifax, and a Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He earned his MD and PhD at Ben-Gurion University. Dr. Friedman's research focuses on the interactions between vascular and neuronal systems, particularly microvascular pathology and blood-brain barrier dysfunction in brain injuries, epilepsy, and neurodegeneration. With over 175 peer-reviewed publications and supervision of more than 60 post-graduate students, his work has significantly advanced the understanding of the role of the brain vascular system in post-traumatic epilepsy.

Aristea S. Galanopoulou, MD, PhD

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Bronx, New York, USA

Dr Galanopoulou is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx NY, USA) and Director of the Laboratory of Developmental Epilepsy. Dr Galanopoulou’s research focuses on elucidating the pathogenesis and identifying new age-, sex, syndrome-specific therapies for seizures and epileptic syndromes across the life span, by using age- and syndrome-specific animal models. Dr Galanopoulou is leading multicenter centers aiming to identify biomarkers and treatments that prevent post-traumatic epilepsy. Dr Galanopoulou has been the chair of the Neurobiology Commission of the ILAE, and co-chair of the ILAE/AES Joint Translational Research Task Force and ILAE/AES Joint Drug-Resistant Epilepsy, was a founding Editor-in-Chief for Epilepsia Open and is an associate editor for Neurobiology of Disease. She received the Ambassador for Epilepsy Award by the ILAE in 2015 and the Saul R. Korey Award in Translational Science and Medicine in 2017. 

James J Gugger, MD, PharmD

University of Rochester

Rochester, New York

Dr. Gugger is an academic neurologist with clinical expertise in epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. His research program is focused on developing quantitative neuroimaging biomarkers in epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic epilepsy.

Jennifer A. Kim, MD, PhD

Yale School of Medicine

New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Jennifer A. Kim, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine whose clinical and research focus centers on critically injured neurologic patients. Her work integrates continuous EEG and neuroimaging biomarkers to identify patients at highest risk for developing complications after acute brain trauma, including post-traumatic epilepsy. She leads the Kim Lab, which applies computational methods to ICU data with the goal of predicting and ultimately preventing secondary neurologic injuries following traumatic brain injury, brain hemorrhage and stroke. Through this translational approach, Dr. Kim aims to drive early intervention strategies that reduce seizure burden, improve outcomes, and transform care for patients who suffer neurologic insults.

Pavel Klein

PrevEp, Inc./Mid-Atlantic Epilepsy and Sleep Center

Bethesda, Maryland

Dr. Klein is a co-founder and CEO of PrevEp, Inc., a biotech start up developing treatments to prevent post-traumatic epilepsy, Director of the Mid-Atlantic Epilepsy and Sleep Center in Bethesda, MD and Clinical Professor of Neurology at The George Washington University. Dr. Klein obtained his BA and MA in neuroscience at the University of Oxford, completed medical studies at the University of Cambridge, UK, neurology residency and epilepsy fellowship at the University of Virginia, and neuroendocrinology and sleep fellowships at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Klein’s clinical research includes prevention of post-traumatic epilepsy, biomarkers of PTE and novel treatments of epilepsy. He led the only successfully completed Phase 2 study of PTE prevention in the last 25 years and has created an international consortium of level 1 trauma/epilepsy centers active in PTE studies. 

Firas Kobaissy, PhD

Morehouse School of Medicine

Atlanta, Georgia

Dr. Firas H. Kobeissy is a Professor of Neurobiology at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, where he serves as Founding Director of the Center for Neurotrauma, Multiomics & Biomarkers (CNMB) and a Research Health Scientist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. His research focuses on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neurotrauma, emphasizing biomarker discovery, multi-omics integration, and translational neurotherapeutics.

Dr. Kobeissy’s work spans molecular and systems-level characterization of brain injury mechanisms, proteomic and metabolomic profiling, and the development of innovative diagnostic platforms, including dried plasma biosampling and lateral flow devices for rapid biomarker testing. He leads and collaborates on multiple NIH, DoD, and VA-funded projects, bridging preclinical models and human clinical studies to advance precision diagnostics and neuroprotective interventions.

Laura Lubbers, PhD

CURE Epilepsy

Chicago, Illinois

Dr. Laura Lubbers is Chief Scientific Officer at CURE Epilepsy. She has led large multi-team research initiatives focused on post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) and also co-organized the inaugural International Conference on PTE in Milan, Italy. Importantly, Dr. Lubbers' sister, Ellyn, suffered from intractable epilepsy from an early age, and her mother was diagnosed with epilepsy later in life.  The impact of epilepsy on her family fuels her passion to find better healthcare solutions for people with epilepsy.  Dr. Lubbers holds a Bachelor of Science in Physiology, as well as a Master's and a Doctoral degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana.

Andrey M. Mazarati, MD, PhD, FAES

University of California, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, USA

Andrey Mazarati, received his MD from Odesa Medical University in Ukraine, PhD from National Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, Russia, and completed postdoctoral training at UCLA. Research interests include epilepsy comorbidities, role of inflammation, monoaminergic and peptidergic dysfunction. During the past 10 years has been involved in preclinical studies of post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) first focusing on comorbidities and presently - on the involvement of gut-microbiota-brain axis in PTE from both biomarker and therapy perspectives. 

Jens D. Mikkelsen, MD PhD

University of Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark

Professor Mikkelson is a translational pharmacologist with strong interest in the epileptogenic changes in the brain. He works clinically and experimentally to determine relevant synaptic and neuroinflammatory biomarkers in epilepsy.

He is professor in Translational Neuropharmacology at the Institute of Neuroscience and at the Neurobiology Research Unit. Mikkelsen laboratory is part of the Institute of Neuroscience and some activities are also conducted at NRU.

The Mikkelsen lab is interested in synaptic plasticity and neuroinflammation. We develop novel methods to measure these processes in the human brain and in animal models. We do this to study brain pathology and drug action and these affect these changes in the brain. 

Solomon (Nico) Moshé, MD

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Charles Frost Chair in Neurosurgery and Neurology
Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience & Pediatrics
Vice-Chair, Saul R Korey Dept. of Neurology
Director, Isabelle Rapin Division of Child Neurology
Director, Clinical Neurophysiology

Dr Moshé was co principal investigator of a Center Without Walls grant on interdisciplinary research aimed at accelerating the development of disease modifying or prevention therapies for epilepsy following traumatic brain injuries. His was the PI of the Engagement Core

Ed Needham, MBBS, PhD

University of Cambridge

Cambridge, UK

Ed Needham is a Consultant Neurologist, and leads the Neuroimmunology service at Addenbrookes Hospital. His research explores the role of dysregulated immune responses in TBI, with particular focus on the adaptive immune system and interleukin 6 signalling.

Michelle Olsen, PhD

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

The Olsen laboratory focuses on transcriptional, morphological and functional alterations in astrocytes in the context of health and disease. Our recent studies have leveraged both chemical kindling and injury induced epilepsy models in an attempt to understand how astrocyte function is altered in the context of epileptogenesis.

Jeanne T. Paz, PhD

Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease & University of California, San Francisco

San Francisco, California, USA

Jeanne Paz, PhD, is a Full Professor at UCSF and Principal Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, where her laboratory investigates how thalamocortical circuits contribute to epilepsy caused by brain injury. She pioneered the closed-loop optogenetic approach for real-time seizure control in a post-stroke epilepsy model, revealing the thalamus’s critical role after injury. Since establishing her lab in 2014, Dr. Paz has identified key roles for glial and peripheral immune cells in thalamocortical circuit plasticity, secondary neurodegeneration, and epileptogenesis after traumatic brain injury. She has been recognized with major honors including the Michael Prize and the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. Dr. Paz also serves on the external advisory board of the Post-Traumatic Epilepsy Center Without Walls (PTERC).

Matthew Pease, MD

Indiana University

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Matthew Pease, MD is a neurosurgeon at Indiana University who specializes in care for patients with neurotrauma. Dr. Pease is interested in better understanding how to predict outcomes for trauma patients, communicate expected outcomes to families, and better prevent complications during the course of recovery. He specializes in using advanced AI approaches for prognostication in neurotrauma and developing new pathways for treating neurotrauma patients. 

Asla Pitkänen, MD, PhD, DSci

University of Eastern Finland

Kuopio, Finland

Dr. Pitkänen is a Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Eastern Finland (Kuopio, Finland). Her major interest over the past 20 years has been to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). She has conducted large preclinical studies to identify antiepileptogenic effects of novel treatments and discover biomarkers for post-traumatic epileptogenesis. She has extensive experience in participating and managing collaborative projects on PTE at different scales in Europe (Academy of Finland, European Science Foundation, European Union), USA (NINDS, DoD, CURE), and Australia (NHMRC). She has served major international organizations in leadership positions, including the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). She is a former Editor-in-Chief of Epilepsy Research and Section Editor in Systems Neurosciences for Neuroscience. 

Mary Jo Pugh, PhD, RN

University of Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Dr. Mary Jo Pugh, is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah and a Research Career Scientist at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System. Her research program focuses on characterizing post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) in military Veterans. She leads major research initiatives, including the Military INjuries-Understanding post-Traumatic Epilepsy (MINUTE) studies, which examine risk factors for PTE and the impact on both individuals with PTE and their caregivers. Her work is critical in defining the risk factors, complex comorbidities, population-level burden, and mortality of PTE in the Veteran community.

Aylin Reid MD, PhD, FRCPC

University of Toronto/University Health Network

Toronto, Canada

Dr. Aylin Reid is a clinician-scientist at the University Health Network and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She is an adult epileptologist and principal investigator in a basic science research program focused on mechanisms of epileptogenesis and novel treatment strategies, particularly in the area of post-traumatic epilepsy. Dr. Reid’s lab currently holds research funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Department of Defense, and the LouLou Foundation. 

Andrea Schneider MD PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Andrea Schneider, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Neurology in the Division of Neurocritical Care with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She received her MD in 2014 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and received her PhD in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2012. She completed Neurology Residency and Neurocritical Care Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2020. She is a neuroepidemiologist who has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications. Her research program focuses on long-term outcomes after traumatic brain injury, with a focus on epilepsy, stroke, and cognitive outcomes. She is currently supported by a NINDS K23 award and is also PI on three Department of Defense grants. She is the recipient of the 2023 Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award in Clinical Science from the American Neurological Association and the 2023 Rising Star Award from the National Neurotrauma Society.

Kevin J. Staley, MD

Harvard Medical School

Boston, Massachusetts

Kevin Staley is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation at Harvard Medical School and the chief of the section of child neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He trained in physics at Loyola Marymount University; in medicine and pediatric neurology at the University of California, San Diego; and in cellular electrophysiology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The lab has a longstanding interest in signaling by the neurotransmitter GABA.  GABA signals are carried by anion currents that are uniquely reversible.  The lab studies how and why these signals reverse; how these reversals may engender seizures; and how the direction of GABA currents can be manipulated to prevent seizures.  Translational efforts include studies of ion and fluid shifts that underlie brain swelling, hemorrhages, and seizures after injury, both acute and chronic. 

Alexandra Ulyanova, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA

Paul M. Vespa, MD

University of California, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Dr. Paul Vespa is the Assistant Dean for Research in Critical Care, the Gary L. Brinderson Family Chair in Neurointensive Care and Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Vespa is a fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society, The Society of Critical Care Medicine, The American Academy of Neurology, and The American Neurology Association. Dr. Vespa has held multiple national leadership positions including the Chair of Unified Council on Neurologic Subspecialties, Vice Chair of the American Academy of Neurology Section on Emergency and Critical Care Neurology, and Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President of the Neurocritical Care Society. Dr. Vespa has been a mentor for the American Academy of Neurology’s Diversity Mentorship program TRANSCENDS. Dr. Vespa is co-founder of the Curing Coma Campaign and has been Chair of the NIH Review Committee for Acute Neurological Injuries and Epilepsy.

As a neurointensive care specialist, Dr. Vespa focuses on critical care for the treatment of neurosurgical and stroke patients. Dr. Vespa is a Diplomate of the UCNS in Neurocritical Care and a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Amy K. Wagner, MD

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Pitttsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr. Amy K. Wagner is a leading investigator in the use of biomarkers developing prognostic models and clinical decision algorithms as well as optimizing individualized treatment outcomes, in an effort to “personalized rehabilitation medicine," for populations with traumatic brain injury. Her research also focuses on how biomarkers representing the neurobiology of injury and recovery after TBI inform secondary disease/condition development, including post-traumatic epilepsy, and subsequent impacts on function.  She has recently published on prognostic model development for predicting likelihood of PTE and on PTE effects on multidimensional outcome in a population with moderate to severe TBI.

John A. Wolf, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Dr. John A. Wolf is an Assoc. Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Research Scientist at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VAMC. Dr. Wolf's research program is highly collaborative, and focuses on a number of broad areas related to neurotrauma, neuromodulation, repair, and post-traumatic epilepsy.  Trained as a computational and systems level neuroscientist, Dr. Wolf's goals are a deeper understanding of the role of diffuse and focal brain injury in disrupting communication between and within brain regions. He believes that functional measures such as in vivo electrophysiology post-injury will most successfully elucidate the disruption that occurs to white matter pathways and neuronal circuitry in important cognitive areas such as the hippocampus and related limbic structures such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. His laboratory focuses on the examination and neuromodulation of circuitry disruption after traumatic brain injury, as well as the mechanisms of epileptogenesis following TBI.

Elisa R. Zanier, MD

Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research

Milan, Italy

Director, Department of Acute Brain and Cardiovascular Injury

Dr. Elisa R. Zanier is a leading clinician-scientist in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neuroprotection. Trained in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Milan, she combines clinical expertise with translational research at the Mario Negri Institute. Her work focuses on the mechanisms, biomarkers, and treatment of TBI and post-traumatic epilepsy. She co-leads international projects funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and CURE Epilepsy and chaired the NIH-supported 2024 International Conference on Post-Traumatic Epilepsy in Milan.