Meet the Marinus Team

Dr. Pestana Knight completed medical school in Cuba, where she graduated at the top of her class in 1991. This was followed by training in general neurology and pediatric neurology, at the Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia in Havana, Cuba, which she completed in 1996. After moving to the United States, Dr. Pestana Knight completed a research fellowship in epilepsy at the Cleveland Clinic (2004), residency training in pediatrics at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital (2007), and pediatric neurology residency at the University of Michigan (2010).

She is board certified in pediatrics, neurology with special qualifications in child neurology and epilepsy. Dr. Pestana Knight has authored more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed journals related to epilepsy and neurological disorders. Her areas of research interest include co-morbidities in pediatric epilepsy, developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, in particular CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder and CSWSS/ESES, epilepsy surgery and pediatric epilepsy outcomes. She is also an enthusiastic teacher.

He earned is Doctorate of Medicine at Medizinische Universität Wien and his Master of Health Science at The Tyrolean Private University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology. Dr. Trinka’s research interests include clinical epileptology with a focus on epidemiology, prognosis, epilepsy surgery, and status epilepticus. He is the founding member of the European Epilepsy Consortium, dedicated to clinical drug trials in the field of epilepsy and has authored more than 480 scientific publications and book chapters, including the seminal paper describing the diagnostic criteria for non-convulsive status epilepticus called the Salzburg criteria.

Dr. Trinka is the current President of the Austrian Society of Neurology, past president of the Austrian Society for Epilepsy, Austrian Society for Clinical Neurophysiology and the Society of Epilepsy Surgery Centres in Germany, Austria. He has been elected as Chair of ILAE-EUROPE in 2017. He also serves on the ILAE Task force of Classification of Status Epilepticus, the Commission on Medical Treatment, the ILAE Working group on pre-clinical drug discovery, and the ILAE Task Force on regulatory affairs.

Dr. French trained in Neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and did her fellowship training in EEG and epilepsy at Mount Sinai hospital and Yale University. Over the past 20 years she has served as the principle investigator on several trials for new epilepsy drugs and has focused her research efforts developing new therapeutics for epilepsy and novel methodologies for clinical trials.

Dr. French, who serves as Chief Medical/Innovation Officer for the Epilepsy Foundation, has been active in creating guidelines for the American Academy of Neurology and the International League Against Epilepsy. She is the editor of three books and has authored over 300 articles and chapters.

He is a member of the American Epilepsy Society and serves on boards for several organizations. His roles include chair of the PCDH19 Alliance’s scientific advisory board, member of the Epilepsy Foundation of Northern California’s board of directors, and member of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation’s medical advisory board and board of directors.

He received his M.D. and Ph.D. (pharmacology) from Yale and trained in neurology at Johns Hopkins. He has served on the board of directors of the American Epilepsy Society and has been a member of advisory panels to the National Institutes of Health. He has authored more than 275 research papers, reviews, and book chapters, and edited five books.

He co-directs the University of California Drug Discovery Consortium; is on the active medical staff of UC Davis Health, where he served as chair of the Department of Neurology; and teaches at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Dr. Rogawski was formerly chief of the Epilepsy Research Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

He completed his Pediatric Neurology residency, Clinical Neurophysiology fellowship, and Epilepsy fellowship training at UCLA and completed his pediatrics residency at the Unterberg Children’s Hospital at Monmouth Medical Center in New Jersey.

Currently, his clinical and research interests involve rare genetic epilepsies, specifically tuberous sclerosis complex, CDKL5 deficiency disorder, and other developmental and epileptic encephalopathies. He also does computational research on EEG activity pertaining to infantile spasms. 

Dr. Rajaraman is the primary investigator of over a dozen pharmaceutical and investigator driven clinical trials and studies. He has presented research at multiple conferences, including the American Academy of Neurology, Child Neurology Society, and the American Epilepsy Society, receiving achievements including the national 2014 American Epilepsy Society Young Investigator Award. Dr. Rajaraman has multiple publications on developmental epileptic encephalopathies and infantile spasms. In addition to his clinical and research interests, Dr. Rajaraman is an active member of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and American Epilepsy Society (AES). He works closely with patient advocacy groups, like the TSC Alliance and the International Foundation for CDKL5 Research (IFCR).