Associate Professor Sudarshini (Darshi) Ramanathan
Darshi is a lead clinician at Concord Hospital, in one of the largest national multidisciplinary neuroimmunology clinics, and diagnoses and treats patients with suspected autoimmune neurological disorders.
Darshi’s research has led to the recognition of novel neurological syndromes, the development of gold standard diagnostic assays now in routinely clinical use, and diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations which have been adopted globally. She leads several Australasian and International consortia and serves on expert panels revising diagnostic criteria for several neuro-immunological disease entities. For her remarkable work, Darshi has been awarded four consecutive NHMRC fellowships, the 2022 Early Career Researcher of the Year (Biological Sciences) NSW Premier’s Prize for Science and Engineering, and the 2022 Leonard Cox Award for Excellence in Neuroscience Research.
Darshi’s Snow Fellowship Program
Darshi is passionate about translating discoveries in autoimmune neurology into improved diagnostics and treatments, transforming the lives of people affected by devastating neurological diseases worldwide. Her Snow Program aims to uncover underlying drivers of immune dysfunction and loss of immune tolerance in autoimmune brain injury. Her work will advance diagnosis by defining characteristic immune profiles, as well as developing a globally available web-based tool to enable rapid and accurate diagnosis of demyelination. Finally, her program will identify refined therapeutic targets and develop consensus treatment guidelines to improve outcomes and reverse disability in children and adults who otherwise risk blindness, paralysis, seizures and death. Darshi’s ground-breaking work will help position Australia as global leader in this rapidly evolving field. As 4th clinician scientist in the Fellow cohort, Darshi will further strengthen the Program’s clinical and translational perspective. Darshi is also mother of two primary school-aged children.