Ranmal Samarasinghe, MD, PhD

Dr. Ranmal Samarasinghe is a neurologist with subspecialty training in clinical neurophysiology and a neuroscientist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Samarasinghe is an Assistant Professor with clinical interests in epilepsy and neurophysiologic intraoperative monitoring (NIOM) and he runs an active laboratory that focuses on stem cells and epilepsy. Dr. Samarasinghe received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013. He completed his residency in adult neurology at UCLA in 2017 and then completed an NIH funded post-doctoral research and clinical fellowship at UCLA from 2017-2020. During this period, Dr. Samarasinghe obtained clinical training in epilepsy and neurophysiologic intraoperative monitoring. He also performed research developing stem cell-based models of epilepsy.

His research focused on 3D brain-like structures called human brain organoids that are grown in a laboratory dish and that are derived from stem cells. Brain organoids can be generated from the stem cells of individual patients and may provide unique insights into the causes of human neurological diseases such as epilepsy. They can also be used as a novel platform for drug testing. Dr. Samarasinghe recently started his own laboratory at UCLA where he will continue to develop the human brain organoid model. He will also continue to manage patients with epilepsy in his clinic and perform neurophysiologic intraoperative monitoring for surgical cases performed at UCLA and affiliated hospitals.

Link to Dr. Samarasinghe's complete CV