EPNS 2023

Dr Kostera-Pruszczyk is Professor and Head of the Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland. She received an MD and PhD in Medical Sciences from the Medical University of Warsaw, specializing in both pediatric and adult neurology. She is involved in patient care, including intensive care, teaching, and supervising medical students and neurology residents.

Professor Kostera-Pruszczyk has published over 75 refereed journal papers, mostly on neuromuscular disorders (NMDs). She is a member of the Expert Panel of the European Academy of Neurology for NMDs. She is also Vice President of the Polish Society of Pediatric Neurologists, a member of the Polish Neurological Society, the Peripheral Nerve Society, and the European Academy of Neurology.

Sandi Kariyawasam is a Paediatric Neurologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick and Associate Lecturer at the School of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales. She was the primary investigator of the first Australian pilot program for SMA and is now Chair of the Working Group for national implementation of newborn screening for this condition. Her research focus is neuromuscular disorders and neurophysiology, aiming to further understand disease pathophysiology, develop equitable treatment strategies and improve patient and family centered multidisciplinary care and support.

Katarzyna Kotulska is the professor and head of the Department of Neurology and Epileptology at The Children’s Memorial Health Institute, Warsaw, Poland. She is also a representative of Poland in the Board of Member States for European Reference Networks.

Dr Kotulska is certified in neurology and neuropediatrics. She is also a chair of Polish national SMA treatment program.

Dr Kotulska’s clinical and basic research focuses mainly on rare diseases of the developing nervous system and epileptology. She coordinated the clinical part of the European project EPISTOP (www.epistop.eu) She is currently a coordinator of two large non-commercial clinical trials, aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of rapamycin in preventive treatment in TSC infants (ViRap study) and drug-resistant epilepsy associated with TSC (RaRE-TS study). She is an author of over 160 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals and several book chapters.