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

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.