Children's National experts to present at the 55th Child Neurology Society Annual Meeting - Children's National

Faculty, trainees and researchers from the Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine Center at Children's National will share their expertise at the 55th Child Neurology Society (CNS) Annual Meeting, taking place October 14-17, 2026, in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Children's National representatives will contribute to invited educational workshops, scientific seminars, panel discussions and poster presentations spanning epilepsy, neurogenetics, neurocritical care, clinical trials, movement disorders, neuroimmunology, headache medicine and autism research.

Prior to the annual meeting, on October 13, Kuntal Sen, MD, will serve as Summit Director for the "CNS Genetics Summit: Diagnosis, and the Path Toward Precision Medicine: A Hands-On Educational Workshop". Additional Children's National contributors include Jeffrey Strelzik, MD, Education Lead; Wei-Liang Chen, MD; and Hannah Grindling, MMSc, GC. During the workshop, Dr. Chen will present "When Exomes Are Negative: What's Next?" as part of a session exploring emerging topics in neurogenetics.

Children's National faculty also will participate in the John M. "Jack" Pellock Resident Seminar on Epilepsy, an annual invitation-only course honoring renowned pediatric epileptologist Jack Pellock, MD. The seminar brings together graduating residents, faculty and CNS leadership for a full day of lectures, case discussions and educational activities. Dana Harrar, MD, PhD, and Tammy Tsuchida, MD, PhD, will serve as invited speakers, with Dr. Tsuchida presenting on neonatal seizures and neonatal epilepsy syndromes.

Conference presentations and topics include:
Wednesday, October 14
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Workshop 2: Neurocritical Care: ABCs of Brain Injury, Monitoring and Recovery
Dana Harrar, MD, PhD, discussion leader

2-6 p.m.
Child Neurology/NDD Educators Symposium: The Evolving Landscape of Residency Training
Jeffrey Strelzik, MD, roundtable discussion leader - Training and Assessing Residents in the Use of AI

Thursday, October 15 - 2-3:15 p.m.
Seminar 2: Modernizing Endpoints in Pediatric Neurology Clinical Trials
Elizabeth Duke, MD, seminar organizer and presenter - Opportunities and Considerations for Expanding Endpoints Across Neurologic Disorders
John Schreiber, MD, panelist

Friday, October 16 - 1-2:15 p.m.
Seminar 10: Metabolic Epilepsies: Navigating "Forbidden" Therapies
Wei-Liang Chen, MD, presenter - When Contraindications Collide with Clinical Reality

Saturday, October 17 - 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Symposium III: A Year in Review
Laura Tochen, MD - speaker

Highlighted poster presentations include:

• Identifying Pediatric Neurology Care Gaps in Rural Honduras: A Needs Assessment (#40), Joanna Bendeck, MD, Jeffrey Strelzik, MD
• Preliminary Efficacy of Onabotulinumtoxin A for Treatment of Chronic and Daily Pediatric Migraine (#152), Lauren Vilardo, MD, Elizabeth Pickup, MD, Merve Ozge Aktop, MS, Emily McCracken, PA-S, Mrinmayee Takle, MD, Raquel Langdon, MD, Marc DiSabella, DO, Alexandra B. Kornbluh, MD, Jeffrey Strelzik, MD
• Holmes Tremor in Pediatrics: A Multicenter Case Series (#177), Laura Tochen, MD
• Barriers to Genetic Testing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (#236), Sinan Turnacioglu, MD
• Expanding Reality: A Systematic Review of XR Interventions for Social and Functional Outcomes in Children with Autism (#295), Sinan Turnacioglu, MD
• Not All That Looks Mitochondrial is Mitochondrial: Insights from Single-Center Multi-Disciplinary Clinic (#345), Xuan Tran, MD, PhD, Adriana de la Flor, MD, Hannah Phillips, MD, Srika Amin, MMSc, CGC, Jyssica Seebeck, PhD, Laura Tochen, MD, Sarah Wright, DO, Dana Harrar, MD, PhD, Kuntal Sen, MD
• From Variant to Insight: A HIPAA-Compliant AI Tool for Pediatric Neurogenetics (#356), Christian Hidalgo Jara, MD, Jeffrey Strelzik, MD, Kuntal Sen, MD
• Rituximab Improves Recovery Trajectories in Pediatric N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis (#378), Ilana Kahn, MD
• Adjunctive 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine Is Well Tolerated and Shows Clinical Promise in Children with Cerebral Malaria (#401), Douglas Postels, MD, MS
• Botulism Beyond the Classic Phenotype: A Case Series (#402), Elizabeth Pickup, MD, Lauren Vilardo, MD, Sarah Wright, DO
• Neurodevelopmental and Oncologic Characteristics of NF1-Microdeletion Syndrome (#448), Sinan Turnacioglu, MD

For more information and to view the full schedule, please visit the CNS conference website.