Profile photo Kees Braun

Kees Braun

Full Professor

Strategic program(s):

Biography

Kees Braun obtained his Medical Degree at Utrecht University in January 1992. He specialized in Neurology (registered in 2000) and Paediatric Neurology (registered in 2002) in the UMC Utrecht. In 2000 he obtained his PhD degree on a thesis entitled “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Hydrocephalus. He was appointed as staff neurologist in 2000 and paediatric neurologist in 2002. Since 2011 he is head of Paediatric Neurology/Neurosurgery.  In May 2012 he was appointed as a full professor of Paediatric Neurology.

His clinical and scientific areas of expertise are: refractory paediatric epilepsy, epilepsy surgery,  imaging in epilepsy, and childhood arteriopathic stroke, in particular moyamoya treatment.

He coordinates epilepsy research in the  UMCU Brain center. The epilepsy research projects he is personally involved in  focus on the effects of focal epilepsy on the brain in animal models and patients (structural and functional integrity and network analysis); seizure- and cognitive outcome after paediatric epilepsy surgery; postoperative antiepileptic drug withdrawal; ESES treatment; stress and epilepsy; and epileptic focus detection in surgical candidates.

Kees Braun currently is president of the Dutch Society of Paediatric Neurology and of the organizing committee of the 2016 world congress of child neurology (ICNC) in Amsterdam. He is member of the European Task Force for Epilepsy Surgery in Children (U-Task), the European Network for Epilepsy Research (ENER), and work-package leader of the EU-funded E-PILEPSY project.

Research line

Refractory epilepsy

Most recent key publications

1: Boshuisen K, Arzimanoglou A, Cross JH, Uiterwaal CS, Polster T, van Nieuwenhuizen O, Braun KP; for the TimeToStop study Group. Timing of antiepileptic drug withdrawal and long-term seizure outcome after paediatric epilepsy surgery (TimeToStop): a retrospective observational study. Lancet Neurol 2012:11:784-791
2: Van Campen JS, Jansen FE, Pet MA, Otte WM, Hillegers MH, Joels M, Braun KP. Relation between stress-precipitated seizures and the stress response in childhood epilepsy. Brain 2015;138:2234-2248
3: Lamberink HJ, Boshuisen K, van Rijen PC, Gosselaar PH, Braun KP. Changing profiles of pediatric epilepsy surgery candidates over time: a nationwide single-center experience from 1990 to 2011. Epilepsia 215;56:717-725
4: Boshuisen K, van Schooneveld MM, Uiterwaal CS, Cross JH, Harrison S, Polster T, Daehn M, Djimjadi S, Yalnizoglu D, Turanli G, Sassen R, Hoppe C, Kuczaty S, Barba C, Kahane P, Schubert-Bast S, Reuner G, Bast T, Strobl K, Mayer H, de Saint-Martin A, Seegmuller C, Laurent A, Arzimanoglou A, Braun KP, for the TimeToStop cognitive outcome study group. Intelligence quotient improves after antiepileptic drug withdrawal following pediatric epilepsy surgery. Ann Neurol 2015;78:104-114
5: Braun KPJ, Bulder MMM, Chabrier S, Kirkham FJ, Uiterwaal CSP, Tardieu M, Sebire G. Longitudinal vascular imaging in 79 children with ischemic stroke and unilateral intracranial arteriopathy. Brain 2009;132:544-557

Strategic program(s):

Contact

Research groups

Personalized prediction, treatment and genetics in epilepsy

Research aim

We develop personalized methods for diagnosing, treating, and predicting outcome in epilepsy. Our aim is to better control seizures, treat comorbidities, and improve quality of life with a precision medicine approach in all people with epilepsy.

Go to group

Recent publications

Diagnostic accuracy of T2-hypointensity in determining the epileptogenic lesion on unmyelinated brain MRI in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) Matyas Ebel, Carmen H Stevering, Zuzana Holubova, Maarten H Lequin, Martin Kyncl, Barbora Straka, Hanna M Hulshof, Alena Jahodova, Martin Kudr, Kees P J Braun, Floor E Jansen, Pavel Krsek
Brain communications, 2025, vol. 7
Blueprint for clinical N-of-1 strategies with off-label precision treatments in monogenic epilepsies Victoria M Defelippe, Eva H Brilstra, Willem M Otte, Ghislaine J M W van Thiel, Helen J Cross, Finbar O'Callaghan, Valentina De Giorgis, Emilio Perucca, Kees P J Braun, Floor E Jansen
Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 2025, vol. 20
Anti-seizure medication is a minor causative factor in behavioral problems of children with tuberous sclerosis complex H. M. Hulshof, J. K. Heijstek, W. M. Otte, H. Bruining, K. P.J. Braun, F. E. Jansen
Epilepsy and Behavior, 2025, vol. 168
Exploring determinants of time to school re-entry after pediatric epilepsy surgery Evangeline A. Huis in 't Veld, Olga Braams, Willem M. Otte, Peter van Rijen, Kees P.J. Braun, Renske Schappin
Epilepsy and Behavior Reports, 2025, vol. 30
A novel model to quantify blood transit time in cerebral arteries using ASL-based 4D magnetic resonance angiography with example clinical application in moyamoya disease Alex A. Bhogal, Simone M. Uniken Venema, Pieter T. Deckers, Kim van de Ven, Maarten Versluis, Kees P. Braun, Albert van der Zwan, Jeroen C.W. Siero
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 2025, vol. 45, p.1069-1081
Vigabatrin-associated brain magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities and clinical symptoms in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex Carmen Stevering, Maarten Lequin, Kinga Szczepaniak, Krzysztof Sadowski, Saba Ishrat, Alberto De Luca, Alexander Leemans, Willem Otte, David J. Kwiatkowski, Paolo Curatolo, Bernhard Weschke, Kate Riney, Martha Feucht, Pavel Krsek, Rima Nabbout, Anna Jansen, Konrad Wojdan, Kamil Sijko, Jagoda Glowacka-Walas, Julita Borkowska, Dorota Domanska-Pakiela, Romina Moavero, Christoph Hertzberg, Hanna Hulshof, Theresa Scholl, Bořivoj Petrák, Miroslav Maminak, Eleonora Aronica, Jessie De Ridder, Lieven Lagae, Sergiusz Jozwiak, Katarzyna Kotulska, Kees Braun, Floor Jansen
Epilepsia, 2024, vol. 66, p.356-368

Fellowships & Awards

1: Recipient of the first “Patrick Hanlo Award”, March 17 2009
2: Personal investment grant for epilepsy research by the Dutch National Epilepsy Fund
3: Recipient of the “Gerlach Cerfontaine Fellowship” of the Catharijne Foundation, UMCU, 1998-2000, for the PhD project “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Hydrocephalus”
4: Recipient of several research grants from e.g. the Dutch Epilepsy Fund, Johanna Children’s Fund, and Wilhelmina Research Fund.

External positions

No external positions -