IDENTIFYING AND TREATING AUTOIMMUNE NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS
With
Associate Professor Sudarshini (Darshi) Ramanathan,
Neurologist & Head of Translational Neuroimmunology Group
Faculty of Medicine and Health
University of Sydney, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | April 2026
Associate Professor Sudarshini Ramanathan is a neurologist and clinician scientist whose work focuses on autoimmune neurological disorders. Her research has helped identify new neurological syndromes due to antibody-mediated demyelination and encephalitis, and improve diagnostic tools and treatment guidelines for patients with autoimmune diseases affecting the brain, spinal cord, muscles and nerves.
Associate Professor Ramanathan’s research program aims to improve our understanding of underlying disease pathogenesis with a focus towards ‘precision medicine’ in neuroimmunology – both with diagnosis and therapeutics. Her research focuses on defining the clinical, radiological, and immunophenotypic profiles of specific pathogenic autoantibodies; understanding what triggers autoimmunity and disruption of immune tolerance; and the cellular and humoural mechanisms of action of autoantibodies and how this might be translated into refining novel therapeutic approaches.
Her work thus far has resulted in the enhanced recognition of novel treatable neurological conditions, important biological insights into the pathophysiology of these disorders, and the development of diagnostic criteria and therapeutic approaches to improve outcomes in vulnerable patients who otherwise risk chronic disability.
Associate Professor Ramanathan heads the Translational Neuroimmunology Group at the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney; and also runs a neuroimmunology clinic at Concord Hospital. She supervises and mentors a research team of PhD and Masters candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and clinician researchers. Her research has been recognised by the Leonard Cox Award for Excellence in Neuroscience research and the NSW Premier’s Prize Award for Early Career Researchers (Biological Sciences) in 2022.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0294-9768
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Using Gut Microbes to Reduce Blood Pressure
Professor Francine Marques is an National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader, Viertel Charitable Foundation, and National Heart Foundation Fellow.
She leads the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University and has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Medicine, Nature Cardiovascular Research, and Circulation.
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Dr Mara Zeissig is a recently appointed Lab Head within the Tumour Inflammation and Immunotherapy Program at the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI).
Her research focuses on studying immune evasion mechanisms in lung and pancreatic cancers to identify novel ways to increase response to immunotherapy. Her expertise is in genetically engineered mouse models of lung cancer, CRISPR-Cas9 screening technologies and T cell based immunotherapies (e.g Checkpoint inhibitors). -
Forensic psychiatry research in the setting of the justice system
Prof Kimberlie Dean is Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW. She was appointed to the inaugural Chair in Forensic Mental Health at UNSW in 2011, a joint appointment with Justice Health NSW. She also holds a Clinical Academic appointment as a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist with Justice Health NSW. She is Academic Program Director for the Masters Forensic Mental Health at UNSW.
