Global PANS/PANDAS Research Centres
Where the science is happening
Academic and clinical programs leading PANS/PANDAS research, biobanking, and care across six continents.
United States
Flagship PANS program founded in 2012 by Dr. Jennifer Frankovich. Longitudinal clinical database, large biorepository, and collaborations with ten basic-science labs on biomarkers, cytokines, blood–brain barrier disruption, and autoimmune mechanisms.
Pediatric Neuropsychiatry and Immunology Clinic led by Dr. Kyle A. Williams. Active MRI studies on neuroinflammation in PANDAS/PANS and OCD. Co-author of the PANS/PANDAS Research Consortium's landmark JCAP consensus and treatment papers.
Birthplace of PANDAS research — identified by Drs. Susan Swedo and Henrietta Leonard. Led the foundational immune-treatment trial with Yale. Current NIH-funded work includes anti-interneuron antibody research and grant support for Columbia's Agalliu Lab.
Dr. Dritan Agalliu's lab investigates genetic predisposition to PANS/PANDAS and Sydenham's chorea via GWAS and whole-exome sequencing with CHOP's Center for Applied Genomics. Cutting-edge work on autoantibodies and cytokines driving acute onset.
Dr. James Leckman has collaborated since the foundational IVIG trial with NIMH. Dr. Chris Pittenger investigates mechanistic questions in PANS/PANDAS. Active site for clinical and translational research.
Hosts the POND Brain Bank — the world's only tissue repository dedicated to PANDAS/PANS and neuroimmune-disorder donors. Distributes tissue and biofluids worldwide and runs a new PANDAS/PANS clinical fellowship.
Developed the Cunningham Panel autoantibody assay used in PANS/PANDAS workup. Continues active antibody research with dedicated funding from the PANDAS Network.
Recognized clinical and research centre for pediatric neuropsychiatry. Contributor to consortium publications including landmark work on eating restrictions in PANS/PANDAS. NIMH-supported research site.
Dr. P. Kiela received PANDAS Network grant funding to investigate the gut microbiome and autoantibody identification in PANS/PANDAS. Contributor to multi-centre incidence research.
Researchers across Psychiatry, Medicine, and Genetics have participated in multi-institutional genomic investigations of PANS.
Europe
Home to the OPHELIA project (On PANS: Holistic Epidemiology, Longitudinal Immunotherapies, Additional treatments), launched in 2020 under Dr. Mats Johnson. Ran a comprehensive open-label IVIG trial in ten children with PANS — one of the most rigorous prospective European treatment studies to date. Senior contributors include Prof. Christopher Gillberg and Dr. Elisabeth Fernell.
Child Neurology Division led by Dr. Alberto Spalice has published clinical PANDAS/PANS research since 2013, including an 81-patient 2025 cross-sectional study on oxidative stress and low-grade endotoxemia in PANS vs PANDAS, plus a 2024 immunological characterisation in Frontiers in Pediatrics.
Center for Psychiatry Research (Eva Hesselmark, Susanne Bejerot) has conducted independent diagnostic biomarker studies in Swedish PANS/PANDAS patients, including the only published independent assessment of the Cunningham Panel.
The UK PANS PANDAS Steering Group is developing the first formal national clinical guidelines. The NIHR BioResource launched the D-CYPHR collaboration in October 2024, with a national surveillance study application submitted to the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit. An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and PANS PANDAS Scotland are also now established.
Contributed to a major 2024 systematic review of pediatric autoimmune encephalitis epidemiology, including PANS/PANDAS. The UK's leading children's neuroimmunology centre, participating in international consortia covering this diagnostic space.
Dr. Janet L. Cunningham (Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry) participates in multi-national genomic research identifying ultra-rare genetic variants in PANS.
Department of Pathology and Clinical Bioinformatics is a key European partner in PANS genomic sequencing, contributing to ultra-rare variant discovery with US and Scandinavian collaborators.
Prof. Susanne Bejerot and colleagues have conducted some of the most rigorous independent biomarker validation studies in PANS/PANDAS, including the only published independent assessment of the Cunningham Panel and investigations into autoimmune OCD subtypes.
German researchers actively publishing on clinical characterization of PANS/PANDAS, including a 2025 paper addressing methodological misinterpretations of European tic disorder studies.
Researchers from Catania (Department of Child and Adolescent Neurology) and Messina (Department of Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, and Education) have published systematic narrative reviews of PANDAS diagnostic approaches and are recognised contributors to the international peer-review community on PANS/PANDAS.
Active in collaborative European research on infection-triggered autoimmunity in children, particularly through Dr. Margherita Nosadini, who has co-published with the Westmead group on post-infectious neurological conditions overlapping with PANS.
Published a 2025 prospective cohort study in The Lancet Neurology on differential diagnosis and diagnostic algorithms in children and adolescents with autoimmune encephalitis, including PANS/PANDAS presentations. Spain's paediatric neuroimmunology community is increasingly active in this overlap area.
Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi Montalcini" publishes on the intersection of PANS/PANDAS and eating disorders, including abrupt-onset anorexia nervosa as a post-infectious neuropsychiatric syndrome.
Department of Special Education contributes qualitative and social-science research on PANS, including studies of parental stress in Swedish families.
Dr. Elisabeth Förster-Waldl contributed to the 2024 immunological characterisation of the Italian PANDAS cohort, indicating active collaborative research interest in Austria.
Dr. Ruzica Kravljanac has served as a peer reviewer on foundational PANDAS diagnostic review papers, indicating an active Eastern European clinical research presence.
Australia
The premier PANS/PANDAS research hub in the southern hemisphere. Prof. Russell C. Dale has over 210 peer-reviewed publications and leads the Neuroimmunology Group at the Kids Neuroscience Centre, focusing on infection-triggered autoimmunity. Active PANS research supported by the Sydney Children's Hospitals Foundation, studying PANS as acute onset brain inflammation. Contributing team: Dr. Fabienne Brilot (neuroimmunology/autoantibodies) and Dr. Shekeeb Mohammad (paediatric neurology). Co-authored foundational pediatric autoimmune encephalitis guidelines encompassing PANS/PANDAS.
Australia's leading institute for rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease research, with intensive longitudinal work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities where rates are among the highest on earth. Their END RHD Centre of Research Excellence generates mechanistic data on streptococcal autoimmunity, cardiac valvular damage, and post-infectious neurological sequelae that is deeply relevant to PANS/PANDAS pathophysiology — even though the terminology has not been adopted locally.
South Asia
India's premier medical research institution conducts substantial clinical and epidemiological work on rheumatic heart disease and its neurological complications — including Sydenham's chorea and post-streptococcal movement disorders — in one of the world's highest-prevalence settings. This research generates population-level mechanistic data on strep-triggered autoimmunity that is directly applicable to PANS/PANDAS pathophysiology, though the North American terminology is not in local use.
A major referral centre for northern India with active clinical research into rheumatic fever, Sydenham's chorea, and post-streptococcal neuropsychiatric sequelae. Contributing to the global understanding of how streptococcal infection triggers autoimmune brain inflammation in high-burden populations.
South America
Brazil's most significant centre for research at the intersection of streptococcal infection, rheumatic fever, Sydenham's chorea and PANS/PANDAS — conditions far more prevalent in Brazil than in wealthy nations. Brazil contributed 45 of 114 patients in a landmark NIMH joint OCD/Sydenham's chorea study. Dr. Kette D. Valente has served as a peer reviewer on major PANDAS diagnostic papers. The Institute of Psychiatry has also published on OCD spectrum disorders in rheumatic fever with Sydenham's chorea.
The Section of Pediatric Rheumatology at UNIFESP has followed the largest longitudinal cohorts of Sydenham's chorea and rheumatic fever patients in Brazil — 290 patients over 13 years — foundational to understanding PANDAS pathophysiology, given that Sydenham's chorea is the established post-streptococcal brain inflammation model from which PANDAS theory derives.
Middle East / North Africa
Researchers at the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine (in collaboration with Rady Children's Hospital / UC San Diego) published a 2023 case report and literature review on PANDAS, indicating emerging clinical awareness and research engagement in the Gulf region.
Research from Ain Shams University's Pediatric Hospital has investigated anti-neuronal antibodies in children with rheumatic chorea — directly parallel to PANDAS antibody research — contributing to the global understanding of post-streptococcal autoimmune brain inflammation in a high-prevalence region.
Global Initiatives & Registries
A prospective multi-centre observational study conducted from 2010 to 2012, REMEDY was the first global registry for rheumatic heart disease. While primarily focused on cardiac sequelae, it generated population-level data on post-streptococcal disease burden across Africa, India, and the Middle East — regions where rheumatic fever and its neurological complications remain endemic and where the PANS/PANDAS framework has not yet been adopted.
A global advocacy and research coalition that has generated epidemiological data on rheumatic fever across endemic countries. RHD Action maintains a repository of published and grey literature on rheumatic heart disease, though its focus skews toward the cardiac rather than the neuropsychiatric dimension of post-streptococcal disease.
The WHO established a global network of Streptococcal Collaborating Centres during the late 20th century as part of its Global Programme on Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease. This programme was unfortunately disbanded in 2001 and support for a Group A streptococcal vaccine was downgraded. The loss of this infrastructure is directly relevant to why the global knowledge base on post-streptococcal disease — including the neurological and neuropsychiatric dimensions — is now fragmented.
Coordinates ongoing rheumatic heart disease surveillance globally, with data flowing from endemic-country partners. Their data touches on Sydenham's chorea but stops well short of the neuropsychiatric dimension that PANS researchers care about, highlighting a persistent gap between cardiology-focused global health programmes and neuroimmune psychiatry.