Clinical Neurophysiology – Charith Cooray's research group

Our research

The research conducted within our research group is largely clinically oriented and spans several different areas of neurophysiology and neurology, including research projects in both central neurophysiology, central neurology, peripheral neurophysiology and preclinical basic science neurophysiology research.

The research group is led by Associate Professor and Adjunct Lecturer Charith Cooray, who is a dual specialist in both neurology and clinical neurophysiology.

Dr. Cooray has an overall leadership role over all the different subgroups of the research group, but each subgroup, or team, in turn has independent researchers (all clinical neurophysiologists) who run the individual lines of research, either in small groups or individually.

For more information on our projects, see the Research Projects tab.

Our different research projects and teams/subgroups within the research group are described below:

Team Cooray

Team members: Charith Cooray, Jakob Pansell, Megan Gjordeni

Associate Professor Charith Cooray started his clinical rotation as a neurology resident at KS in 2014, and in parallel he worked on a registry-based PhD project on the prediction of large vessel occlusion in the acute phase of ischemic stroke. He completed his PhD in 2017 and became a specialist in neurology in 2019. Soon after, he started a clinical training program in clinical neurophysiology and became a clinical neurophysiologist in 2023. He has been an associate professor of neurology at KI since 2023 and an adjunct associate professor since 2024.

Charith's current research activities at KI are centered around three main areas: 

1. Non-invasive estimation of intracranial pressure 
2. Blood biomarkers for the identification of stroke subtypes in the acute phase. 
3. Transcranial Doppler in the neurointensive care setting.

These studies, centered on how ultrasound-based measurements of the optic nerve sheath can be used as a non-invasive way to estimate elevated intracranial pressure, have been the subject of a thesis work at CNS that specialist nurse Jakob Pansell at PMI Karolinska has immersed himself in. Charith has been the main supervisor for Jakob, who successfully defended his thesis in May 2024. Jakob continues his clinical research in non-invasive estimation of intracranial pressure with in-depth studies in ultrasound of the optic nerve sheath, with broadening the research to transcranial Doppler and quantitative pupillometry, and with applications of all three methods on, among other things, patients in intensive care after cardiac arrest.

In recent years, Charith has been the principal investigator together with Associate Professor Michael Mazya (associated with Niaz Ahmed's research group at CNS) of a project collecting blood samples in the acute phase of stroke patients treated at Karolinska Hospital. At present, the collection of blood samples is completed, and about 150 patients have been included in the study. We are currently planning several sub-studies, in collaboration with Dr. Thelin's research group, where we intend to study several different blood biomarkers that can be used to distinguish between different stroke subtypes and identify so-called stroke mimics (patients without stroke but with stroke-like symptoms). The analyses will be carried out in collaboration with SciLife Lab. Megan Gjordeni, a final year medical student at Karolinska Institutet, is planned to be responsible for these sub-studies within the framework of a PhD project with Charith as the main supervisor.

In addition to the above-mentioned studies, in collaboration with colleagues in the neurointensive care unit, studies based on transcranial Doppler technology and studies of, among other things, patients with vasospasm problems after subarachnoid hemorrhage are planned.

Team Pourhamidi

Team members: Kaveh Pourhamidi, Dimitrios Avramidis, Atif Sepic

Kaveh Pourhamidi, MD, PhD, is a clinical neurophysiologist and researcher leading several projects focused on peripheral nerve function. His research is conducted, among others, in collaboration with ME Neurophysiology at Karolinska University Hospital and the Department of Clinical Physiology at Karolinska Institutet and covers clinical and neurophysiologic studies to improve diagnosis of patients with complex nerve-related conditions. The research includes clinical and neurophysiological studies investigating physiological and structural changes in nerve and muscle function with the aim to identify specific biomarkers and risk factors.

Studies on ageing and muscle loss aim to elucidate how age-related changes affect nerve function and muscle strength, thereby identifying key factors contributing to muscle weakness in the elderly. In the field of cancer, research focuses on taxane-induced polyneuropathy in patients undergoing chemotherapy, with the aim of early detection and mapping of neuropathic changes through quantitative sensory testing and measurement of intraepidermal nerve fiber density. Further research addresses fine-wire neuropathy and the neurophysiological mechanisms of neuropathic pain, with the aim of developing more sensitive diagnostic methods and improving reference values for sensory nerve function. A specific project investigates long-term changes in nerve and muscle function in post-covid patients, providing important insights into the long-term consequences of the infection.

Taken together, the research contributes to a comprehensive mapping of the physiological factors affecting nerve health and muscle function, and provides a basis for future applications in clinical diagnostics and risk assessment of nerve-related conditions.

Lars Hyllienmark

Lars Hyllienmark, consultant in clinical neurophysiology and previously active as a consultant in neurology, defended his PhD in 1996 and is since 2009 associate professor in clinical neurophysiology at KI. Research-wise, he has experimentally studied the effect of hypoxia and metabolic inhibition on K+ and Na+ channels in rat CA1 neurons using the patch-clamp method. For 30 years he has been conducting clinical studies of peripheral and central nervous system function in patients with type 1 diabetes, currently in collaboration with colleagues based in Linköping. He has previously conducted clinical research on continuous EEG (cEEG), where he concentrated on developing the method in the context of the care of critically ill children and adolescents at BIVA.

Gerald Cooray

Gerald Cooray is a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and received his PhD in 2010 from Karolinska Institutet. He has been an associate professor in clinical neurophysiology since 2019. He works in the field of computational and theoretical neuroscience. This work is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and University College of London.

See Research Gate for more information https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gerald-Cooray