Alexey Boyko gained his MD and PhD from the Russian State Medical
University, Moscow and has been Professor of
the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at this university since 1997. He was
the Chief Neurologist of the Department of Health Care of the Government of
Moscow in 2001-2015, Director of the Moscow Multiple Sclerosis Center in 2004-2014
and Director of the MS Clinical and Research Center of Neuroclinic (Ysupov
Hospital) since 2015. He was elected as a Honourable Professor of Kazan and
Yaroslavl State Medical Universities. Professor Boyko has been a member of the "Oslo
International Think-tank on Multiple Sclerosis Epidemiology, Analytical
Approaches to Study of the Aetiology" at the Center for Advanced Studies
of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1994-1995, and worked at UBC
MS Center in 1998 (Vancouver, Canada). He is also a member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Society of
Neurologists, Co-ordinator of the Medical Consulting Boards of Moscow and
All-Russian MS Societies, President of RUCTRIMS, member of the ECTRIMS Council.
Professor Boyko has published 15
books, 12chapters in books and more
than 800 original publications and is a co-editor of three medical journals.
The main interest is epidemiology and genetic of MS, neuroimmunology, clinical
trials in MS. He is a member of several Advisory Boards of ongoing and finished
clinical trials, a member of Editorial Boards of several international medical
journals.
COI form
Dept
Neurology Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Centre for Neuromuscular and
Neurological Disorders, Perron Institute, University of Western Australia,
Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, Perth, Australia
Professor William Carroll is a Consultant Neurologist,
Chair of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia International Research
Review Board, President of the World Federation of Neurology, foundation Vice
President of the Pan Asian Committee for Research and Treatment of MS
(PACTRIMS), a member of the steering committee of the International Progressive
MS Alliance (IPMSA) and Asia Pacific editor of the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. He has served previously as chair of
the Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia Management Council, President of the
Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists and President of the
XV111 World Congress of Neurology 2005. His principal research activity has
been in demyelinating disease, both multiple sclerosis
and of the biology of demyelination and remyelination in experimental optic
neuropathy.
Michel CLANET has a career as a Professor of
Neurology in the University Hospital of Toulouse in the Neuroscience department
that he led from 2007 to 2014. His field of expertise relates to inflammatory
demyelinating diseases of the nervous system, especially multiple sclerosis
(MS). His research activity was mainly devoted to MS genetic susceptibility and
therapeutic research. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of
the French MS Observatory (OFSEP). He has always been working to promote
research on these diseases, at the national level as Chair of the Scientific
Committee of the ARSEP Foundation (1990-2000) and at the international level as
President of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ECTRIMS)
(2010-2012). He also participated in the creation of the Federation for Brain
Research, of which he was chairman of the scientific council following
Professor Jacques Glowinski. He has also been deeply involved in the teaching
and promotion of neurology in the different neurological institutions during
his tenure as president (College of Neurology Teachers, French Society of
Neurology, neurology sub-section of the National Council of Universities).
Improving the care and support of persons with neurological disabilities has
been his constant concern in innovative programs such as the creation of a regional resources pool to
support persons with neuro-degenerative
diseases.
He is currently chair of the executive
committee of National Neuro-Degenerative Diseases Plan 2014-2019 launched by
the Ministry of Solidarities and Health and vice-chair of the “Commission de
Transparence” of the National Health Authority (HAS).
COI form
Giancarlo Comi is Professor of Neurology, Chairman of
the Department of Neurology, and Director of the Institute of Experimental
Neurology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. He is also President
of the European Charcot Foundation (ECF), a member of the Board of
Administration of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and of the
Scientific Committee of Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla, Co-Chair of
the Scientific Steering Committee of the Progressive MS Alliance, and a fellow of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN). He has served as a past president of the European
Neurology Society, the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, and the
Italian Society of Neurology.
In recent years, Professor Comi has received the ‘Gh.
Marinescu’ honorary award from the Romanian Society of Neurology, and has been
awarded honorary memberships of the Russian Neurological Academic Society, the European Committee for Treatment and
Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS), the European Neurological Society (ENS) and the Sociedad Espanola de
Neurologia. He also
received the Charcot Award for MS Research from the MS International Federation (MSIF)
in 2015. In the past year Professor Comi was awarded the Gold Medal of ‘Benemeranza
Civica’ from the City of Milan and has been recently conferred the honor of
merit as Official by the President of Italy.
Prof. Comi has authored and co-authored more than 1000
articles in peer-reviewed journals, and edited several books, with an h-index
of 100. He has been the invited speaker for more than 450 conferences, both
nationally and internationally. He sits on the executive boards of various
scientific associations and on the editorial boards of Clinical Investigation,
European Journal of Neurology and Multiple Sclerosis. He is also the Associate
Editor of the Neurological Sciences.
COI form
Bruce Cree, MD, PhD, MAS is a Professor of
Clinical Neurology in the Department of Neurology at the University of
California San Francisco.Dr. Cree
completed his MD and PhD in Biochemistry at UCSF.His neurology residency training was at
Columbia University.He returned to UCSF
for a Sylvia Lawry National Multiple Sclerosis Society fellowship and received
a Masters in Advanced Studies in Clinical Research.He is the Clinical Research Director at the
UCSF MS Center and is the George A. Zimmermann Endowed Professor in Multiple
Sclerosis. He divides his time between patient care, clinical research and
teaching.His research focuses on the
genetic epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, understanding factors that
contribute to disease progression and developing novel therapies for MS through
clinical trials.In addition to multiple
sclerosis, Dr. Cree specializes in research and care of patients with
neuromyelitis optica and transverse myelitis.
COI form
Dr. Gloria Dalla Costa, MD received her medical degree from San Raffaele
University and completed her residency in neurology there. She has extensive
training in treating Multiple Sclerosis Patients and has followed several
clinical trials according to Good Clinical Practice. She is part of the
Clinical Research Unit on CNS Disorders (PI Dr. V. Martinelli) and collaborates
with the Clinical Neuroimmunology Research Unit (PI Dr. R. Furlan). Her main
focus of research is on environmental risk factors of MS and biomarkers and prognostic
factors in patients with clinically isolated syndromes, among which she is
focusing on NfL.
COI form
Gilles Edan is currently professor of clinical neurology and chair of the Department of Neurosciences at the University Hospital of Rennes, France. After completing his MD at the University of Rennes in 1981, he went on to specialize in neurology under the supervision of Pr Olivier Sabouraud , was a research fellow at Guy’s hospital (London) in neuroimmunology with RAC Hughes in 1987, spent a sabbatical period of 6 months at the MS clinic of UBC with Don Paty and Joel Oger in Vancouver in 1996 and set up a MS clinic in Brittany in 1996. Gilles Edan was one of the members of the international panel for the new diagnostic criteria of MS (Mc Donald criteria) in 2001 and 2005. He published more than 200 peer-reviewed original papers on his MS researches in Journals and several chapters in books on these subjects.
COI form
Franz Fazekas is Professor of Neurology,
head of the Department of Neurology and director of the Division of General
Neurology at the Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Dr. Fazekas obtained his
medical degree from Karl–Franzens University in Graz, where he also received
his training in neurology and psychiatry. After a 2-year fellowship at the
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA Dr. Fazekas has focused his
research on the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis and
cerebrovascular diseases in combination with neuroimaging tools, especially
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Professor Fazekas has been President of the Austrian Society of
Neurology and the Austrian Society for Stroke Research. He is also a past
member of the Executive Committee of ECTRIMS (European Committee for Treatment
and Research in Multiple Sclerosis) and of MAGNIMS (Magnetic Resonance in MS).
Currently, he is a Vice President of the European Charcot Foundation and President
of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN). Professor Fazekas has authored more
than 500 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters, and serves on various
scientific Advisory, Editorial and Review Boards.
COI form
Dr. Feinstein received his medical
degree in South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand.Thereafter he completed his training in
Psychiatry at the Royal Free Hospital in London, England, before training as a neuropsychiatrist
at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square in London. His Master of Philosophy
and Ph.D. Degree were obtained through the University of London, England.He is professor of Psychiatry at the
University of Toronto.
His research focuses on the search for
cerebral correlates of behavioral disorders associated with multiple sclerosis,
traumatic brain injury, and hysteria (Conversion Disorders). He is past Chair
of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Dr. Feinstein is the author of In Conflict (New Namibia Books, 1998), Dangerous Lives: War and the Men and Women
Who Report It (Thomas Allen, Toronto 2003), The Clinical Neuropsychiatry of Multiple Sclerosis (Cambridge
University Press 1999, with a second edition in 2007), Michael Rabin, America’s Virtuoso Violinist (Amadeus Press, 2005, second
edition, 2011; audiobook, 2017), Journalists
Under Fire: the Psychological Hazards of Covering War (John Hopkins
University Press, 2006) and Battle
Scarred (Tafelberg Press, 2011). His new book Shooting War (Glitterati Editions) is due out in late 2018. He has
published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has authored many book chapters.
In 2000-2001 he was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship to study mental health issues in post-apartheid Namibia. In
2012, he produced a documentary, “Under Fire” based on his research of
journalists in war zones. It was shortlisted for an Academy Award and won a 2012
Peabody Award. His series Shooting War
(http://tgam.ca/ShootingWar)
for the Globe and Mail Newspaper was shortlisted for a 2016 EPPY award.
COI form
Oscar Fernandez, is Senior Investigator at Instituto de Investigacion Biomedica de Malaga (IBIMA) and
Hospital Regional Universitario in Malaga, Spain. He is Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the
University of Malaga. He received his medical degree from Complutense University in Madrid and the PhD
degree from Malaga University. Dr Fernandez earned his ECFMG (External Council for Foreign Medical
Graduates) certificate of the USA, and specialist certificate in neurology and internal medicine from San
Carlos University Hospital in Madrid. Has been the founder and first Director of the Service of Neurology
and thereafter of the Institute of Clinical Neurosciences at Hospital Regional Universitario de Malaga. His
research background includes more than 200 peer- reviewed published papers, 67 book chapters, and
participated in 120 clinical trials (acting as principal investigator for numerous phase II and III trials). Dr.
Fernandez is Founder and Editor of the journal, Revista Española de Esclerosis Multiple. He is a member
of several national and international neurological organizations including having had the position of President
of the Spanish Society of Neurology.
COI form
Mark Freedman is Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at the
University of Ottawa, Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Unit at the Ottawa
Hospital-General Campus.
His extensive research includes molecular
neurochemistry, cellular immunology, and clinical studies in MS. His basic
science interest concerns immune mechanisms of damage in MS, with a particular
interest in the role of the innate immune system such as gamma-delta T-cells. His
main clinical interests are cell-based therapies for MS. He was the lead
investigator of the Canadian Bone Marrow Transplant Study in MS and he co-heads
an international study of mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of MS. He is
the current Treasurer of ACTRIMS.
COI form
Kazuo Fujihara, M.D. is Professor,
Department of Multiple Sclerosis Therapeutics, Fukushima Medical University
School of Medicine, and Director, Multiple Sclerosis & Neuromyelitis Optica
Center, Southern TOHOKU Research Institute for Neuroscience (STRINS), Koriyama
963-8563, Japan. Dr. Fujihara is a neurologist and has mainly worked in the
field of multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and related
neuroimmunological disorders. He contributed to the 2010 and 2016-2017 Revisions
to McDonald Criteria in the International Panel on Diagnosis of MS, and is a
member of the International Panel on NMO Diagnosis. He has also served on the
Board of European Charcot Foundation (2013~), the Executive Committee,
International Medical and Scientific Board of The Multiple Sclerosis International
Federation (2013~) and an External Reviewer of Malaysian Clinical Practice
Guidelines (CPG), Management of Multiple Sclerosis. He is an inaugural member
and Deputy Secretary of PACTRIMS and a co-convener of “MS and Other
Inflammatory Diseases” in the 23rd World Congress of Neurology (2017, Kyoto).
He is a member of International Advisory Board of Sri Lankan Journal of
Neurology (2012~), an Honorary Corresponding Member of the Indian Academy of
Neurology (2015~), and an Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Multiple Sclerosis
Society (2015~).
COI form
Dr Angelo Ghezzi is chief emeritus of Neurology. He is the
responsible of scientific research at Multiple Sclerosis Study Centre of St
Antonio Abate Hospital in Gallarate, Italy, the oldest Italian MS center. He is
member of the Steering Committee of the International Pediatric MS Study Group,
and member of the Italian MS Study Group of the Italian Neurological Society
Dr Ghezzi has been an active researcher, serving as an investigator
in many international Phase II and III trials. His research has focused on the
areas of optic neuritis, MS and pregnancy, MS and sexual disturbances, MS and
epilepsy, MS evolution and prognosis, MRI and clinical correlation with MS, and
clinical neurophysiology (evoked potentials, pelvic floor neurophysiology);
however, he is especially interested in the clinical and therapeutic aspects of
pediatric MS (MS onset in childhood-adolescence, immunomodulatory treatment of
juvenile-onset MS).
Dr Ghezzi is the editor of 10 books on multiple sclerosis, and
author or co-author of more than 200 articles published in international
journals.
COI form
Professor
Hartung received his undergraduate training at the Universities of Düsseldorf,
Glasgow, Oxford and London. After graduation magna cum laude as MD in 1980 he
served an immunology fellowship at JohannesGutenberg-University of Mainz. He
started his career in neurology at the University of Düsseldorf, where he
became assistant professor in 1987. He was appointed professor and head of the
MS clinical research group and Vice Chair of the Department of Neurology at
Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg in 1990 and moved in 1997 to Graz,
Austria, to become chairman of the University Department of Neurology. He is
currently chair of the Department of Neurology at Heinrich Heine University
Düsseldorf, a position he has held since 2001, and since 2012 director of the
Center for Neurology and Neuropsychiatry. He is also Medical Director of the
Department of Conservative Medicine at Düsseldorf University Hospital.
Professor Hartung’s clinical and translational research interests are in the
field of basic and clinical neuroimmunology and in particular multiple
sclerosis and immune neuropathies, development of new immunological,
neuroprotective and neural repair promoting strategies. He has authored or
co-authored more than 900 articles in peer-reviewed journals, one hundred book
chapters and edited nine books. He is a Highly Cited Researcher 2017 (Web of
Science).
He was President of ECTRIMS and has served / serves amongst others on the
executive boards of the European Charcot Foundation, the International Society
of Neuroimmunology, Peripheral Nerve Society, INC,WHO Working Group on Multiple
Sclerosis, GBS CIDP Foundation International, MSIF and the German MS Society
and theUS NMS Society and ECTRIMS clinical trials committee. He is member of
the executive board of IMSCOGS. He is/ was also member of the Editorial Board
of a number of international journals.
COI form
Dr Hillert is a
professor of neurology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm Sweden and
consultant in neurology at the Karolinska Univeristy Hospital since 2001 where
he also holds the position as Director of research and Education. Dr Hillert’s
special interest, both clinically and in research, is multiple sclerosis (MS).
In 1995 he started what in 2000 became the national Swedish Multiple Sclerosis
Registry, SMSreg, one of the leading MS regsitries witt currently over 80 % of
prevalent MS patients in Sweden assessed, at an average for over 7 years.
Starting in the late 1980:ies Dr Hillert focused on the genetics of MS and
contributed to what eventually became a success story with over 200 MS loci
discovered through the joint efforts of the International MS Genetics
Consortium. In recent years, his research efforts have moved into other aspects
of MS epidemiology including pharmacoepidemiology and health economics and
outcomes research, in MS. An important aim for Dr Hillert is the development of
registries within MS and neurology in general and international collaboration
between such registries and data bases, such as in the Big MS Data initiative.
Dr Hillert has published over 260 original papers.
COI form
Pietro Iaffaldano is currently an Assistant Professor of
Neurology at the University of Bari, Italy (from 04/01/2016). Pietro has more
than 10 years of experience working both as clinician and researcher. Since
2005 he attended, at first as student then as resident, the Multiple Sclerosis
research group of the University of Bari directed by Prof Maria Trojano. He
took part actively in the management of Multiple Sclerosis patients using standardized
protocols for diagnosis and treatment. From 2013 to 2015 he was a scientific
consultant of the Mario Negri Sud foundation, working closely to the IT
research group involved in the technical and statistical management of the
iMedWeb project. Main research interests are epidemiology and in particular
pharmaco-epidemiology, data-management of big data sets, cognition and
cognitive rehabilitation techniques applied to multiple sclerosis. The main
research skills are: data management of big data sets using different IT tools.
He has published 40 original contributions in the MS field on international
peer-reviewed journals.
COI form
Grown up in Athens, Greece Ludwig Kappos obtained his
M.D. and a Diploma in Clinical Psychology from the University of Würzburg, Germany,
in 1980, where he went on to specialise in Neurology and Neuroimmunology, and
became Deputy Chief, Division of Clinical Neurology, Max Planck Society,
Clinical Research Unit for Multiple Sclerosis. In 1990 he was elected Head of
the Outpatient Department, Neurology/Neurosurgery and since 2008 Chair of
Neurology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Research interests include immuno-logical
and molecular studies in neuroimmunological diseases, methodology and conduct
of therapeutic studies mainly in the field of MS, standardisation of clinical
assessment, development of biomarkers and use of magnetic resonance tomography
in elucidating the pathogenesis of inflammatory CNS disease and as tool in
monitoring therapeutic studies. Ludwig Kappos serves as chair or member in
several steering committees and advisory boards of Clinical Trials and
Organizations active in the field of MS and general Neurology. Ludwig Kappos
has published more than 670 original papers, reviews and book chapters. He has
been awarded with several prizes and honorary doctorates for his scientific
contributions.
COI form
Sami Khella is Professor of Clinical
Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine.He has done research
in the treatment of immune mediated neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, and chronic inflammatory demyelinating
polyneuropathy (CIDP) for many.He has
published widely on these topics.More
recently, he helped establish the University of Pennsylvania Amyloid Center,
which is one of the largest centers in the United States of America.His
experience with amyloid neuropathy is extensive.
Dr. Khella founded a popular nationally
renowned course on immunotherapy for neurologic disorders.He has won many teaching awards including
most recently the Blockley-Osler award for excellence in teaching neurology
students and residents.
In his other life, when he’s not playing
football (soccer), is as a painter and printmaker, where many of his paintings
hang in important private and public collections.
COI form
Dr Eva Kubala Havrdova is Professor of Neurology at
the First Faculty of Medicine, General University Hospital, Charles University
in Prague, Czech Republic.
She obtained her medical degree at the same
university in 1981 and went on to specialize in neurology and became Professor
at Charles University in 2010. She is currently Director of the Center for Demyelinating
Diseases at Charles University, Prague.
Dr Kubala Havrdová’s research interests include cytokine, immunoglobulin &
T-cell research in multiple sclerosis, treatment of malignant MS. She created
“freedom from disease activity” concept used now to compare efficacy of MS
drugs. She has published more than 100 publications on multiple sclerosis
including Neuroimmunology, Multiple Sclerosis, Handbook on MS for General
Practitioners, Pharmacotherapy of MS, and several books for patients.
She organized ECTRIMS Congress in Prague in 2007, is a member of MSIF International
Medical and Scientific Board, and member of the Czech Neurological Society
Committee. She introduced disease modifying treatment in MS in Czech Republic
and established a network of MS Centers covering all the country. She developed
Standards of Diagnostics and Treatment of MS and NMO in Czech Republic.
COI form
Dawn Langdon completed her training as a
clinical psychologist at Oxford University and the Institute of Psychiatry, KCL.
She worked as a clinical neuropsychologist at the National Hospital for
Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London for sixteen years, obtaining a
PhD on reasoning in organic brain syndromes from the Institute of Neurology, UCL
and registration as both a neuropsychologist and a health psychologist.
She is now Professor of Neuropsychology and
Director of Health and Medicine at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is
also a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She is neuropsychology lead
on a number of multinational trials for the pharmaceutical industry. She has
worked extensively on psychological aspects of MS, including measurement of
cognition and it’s relation to pathology and other disease variables. She is
also investigating how risks and benefits of MS medication are best
communicated to patients, including a successful randomised control trial
comparing the new protocol to consultation as usual. Other interests are how
employment relates to cognition in MS and the measurement of cerebellar
function.
She is Co-Chair of the BICAMS initiative (www.BICAMS.net),
which has recommended a brief cognition tool for MS. There are currently 36
countries in the national validation pipeline, of whom 15 have published. The
AAN have recommended BICAMS as part of its Quality Measurement Set for MS. Over
30 peer review journals recommend BICAMS for routine assessment. BICAMS has
been used in a number of international pharma trials and some high profile
investigations of MS cognition relating to imaging, employment and everyday
life tasks. Dawn Langdon has led on the development of IPAD BICAMS.
She is a frequent
contributor to international scientific meetings and committees and is a
Trustee of the UK MS Trust, with whom she has authored the MS cognition website
www.stayingsmart.org.uk. She is Co-Chair of MS in the 21st Century (https://www.msinthe21stcentury.com).
I have been studying, researching and
working in the areas of medical statistics and statistics for more than 15
years.Some of my previous experience
was in the pharmaceutical industry and covered statistics, data management and pharmacovigilance. I have been working in
the department of Population Health Sciences (nee.Social and Community Medicine) at the
University of Bristol as a medical statistician for the last seven years. Also,
I have been teaching on statistical short courses and epidemiology to Medical
Students since 2014. My first project in
2011 was concerning prognosis in patients with Multiple Sclerosis, building a
model for the natural untreated history of MS patients to apply to the UK Risk
Sharing Scheme.Since 2013 I have been
working on a project looking at two large incidence cohorts of patients with
Parkinson’s disease and for the last year I have been line-manager for someone
working on the same project.As well as
carrying out statistical analyses I am involved in both cohorts as a data
manager, so I work to ensure data quality and have recently created a database
in REDCap for one of these cohorts.At
present I am carrying out a Phd based on my published work looking at prognosis
in Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. My current interests are in
prognostic models that adjust for missing data, looking at non-linearity and
taking into account clustering.
Outside of work I like to play tennis,
cycle and when the weather is right skiing.I love to cook and travelling to exotic places mainly for photography
and to sample the local cuisine.
COI form
Letizia Leocani is
Associate Professor of Neurology at San Raffaele University and Supervisor of
the Experimental Neurophysiology Unit and of Magnetic IntraCerebral Stimulation
center. She had a PhD in Human Physiology and she has been Research Fellow at
the Human Motor Control Section of the National Institutes of Health in
Bethesda-USA. Her fields of interest involve translational validation of electrophysiological
and OCT markers of neurological diseases and of treatment using non invasive
brain stimulation.
COI form
Dr Johannes Lorscheider graduated in medicine and
received an MD from the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany in 2009.
He went on to specialize in neurology at the
University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. In 2015, he performed a one-year clinical
and research fellowship in MS at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia,
working with the MSBase study group. After his return to Basel, he completed
his board certification in neurology in 2017.
He currently works as a consultant neurologist at the
University Hospital Basel with a special interest in MS. His main research
focus is observational cohort studies and clinical outcomes research in MS.
COI form
Melinda
Magyari, MD, PhD is a consultant neurologist at The Danish Multiple Sclerosis
Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen and
the director of The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry.
Her
clinical interests are multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory disorders of
the central nervous system.
Melinda Magyari’s
major research area is in multiple sclerosis epidemiology, with a particular
interest in gender differences in multiple sclerosis.
During the
past years, Melinda Magyari has been involved in several registry studies
addressing questions regarding reproductive issues and risk factors in multiple
sclerosis. Her current research is focused on observational studies investigating
the efficacy, safety and social consequences of MS therapies using real world
data from registries. Furthermore, she
is engaged in a multi-center treatment trial investigating new ways of
monitoring major depressive disorder, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis using
wearable devices and smartphone technology.
She is
strongly involved in international collaborations with other multiple sclerosis
databases and is a member of the BIG MS steering committee
She has
authored more than 50 articles indexed on PubMed. She is secretary of The
Danish Multiple Sclerosis Group network and the leader of the quality database
The Danish Treatment Registry.
COI form
Ariel Miller, M.D., Ph.D.Prof.Ariel Miller holds a
M.D. degree from the “Sackler” school of Medicine, Tel-Aviv, and a Ph.D. degree
in Experimental Sciences (Neurobiology) from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. He is a senior neurologist since 1989. From 1989 to 1992 he was a
research fellow at the Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston,
as a scholar of the Fogarty International
Research Fellowship (N.I.H.).He is currently
the headof The Center for Multiple
Sclerosis & Neuroimmunology Unit,at Carmel Medical
Center, associated with The Rappaport Faculty of Medicine,
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa,
Israel.Prof. Miller is elected member of
the American Neurological Association (ANA)(2005), and the
recipient of the Hershel Rich Technion Innovation Award –2006,for his
contribution in the field of Pharmacogenetics
and 'Personalized Medicine'. He is the Founder of the Israel
Society of Neuroimmunology.Prof. Miller's
scientific and medical work
is dedicated to elucidation
of the mechanisms underlying Braindiseases,with
special focus on implementation of therapeutic
strategies for Multiple Sclerosisas well as
Pharmacogeneticstowards development of 'Personalized Medicine'.
COI form
Dr. Montalban is the Director of the Division of Neurology at the
University of Toronto and Director of the MS centre at St Michael’s Hospital in
Toronto. Also, he currently Chairs the
Department of Neurology-Neuroimmunology and is the director of the Multiple
Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in
Barcelona. He is the former director of the Department of Neuroscience and
Chief of the Neuroimmunology Research Group at the Vall d’Hebron Research
Institute. Dr. Montalban received his medical license, trained as a Neurology
specialist and completed his PhD in neuroimmunology during the 1980s at the
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He went on to undertake a postdoctoral
fellowship at the Lupus Research Institute, Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospital
plus additional clinical training at the National Hospital for Neurology and
Neurosurgery, Queen Square in London, United Kingdom.
Dr. Montalban is Vice-President of Fundació Esclerosi Múltiple (MS Foundation),
President of the Fundació Cemcat and former President of the Executive
Committee of the European Committee for the Treatment and Research in Multiple
Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). He is a member of the US National Multiple Sclerosis
Society Clinical Trials Committee and he chairs the Medical & Scientific
Board of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF). He is a member
of the Board of the European Charcot Foundation.
In the past twenty years, Dr. Montalban has been in the inception phases and on
steering committees of many clinical trials related to multiple sclerosis. He
has authored over 600 original and revision publications in international
peer-reviewed journals, as well as several book chapters. Recently, he co-directed
the development of the first ECTRIMS-EAN Multiple Sclerosis Treatment
Guidelines. He is the editor of the Clinical Cases Section of the Multiple
Sclerosis Journal.
His research interests include clinical trials, clinical aspects of MS, MR
imaging and biological prognostic factors of disease evolution and treatment
response, immunological mechanisms of the disease and other aspects of clinical
management of MS.
COI form
Dr Jackie Palace
is a consultant neurologist in Oxford and Associate Professor of Nuffield
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University. She leads the
Oxford Multiple Sclerosis group and runs a national service for congenital
myasthenic syndromes (CMS) and jointly a UK neuromyelitis optica service (NMO)
which includes adults and children. Her MS service comprises a regional
clinical service and a clinical research group. Her research interests
covers MS, NMO, CMS and myasthenia gravis and include clinical treatment
trials, immunological studies, pathology, biomarkers, genetics and
imaging studies on neurodegeneration and its detection and association with
inflammation. She has been a UK lead for the National Risk Sharing Scheme
which assessed the long-term effectiveness for disease modifying agents in
multiple sclerosis, is a board member for the European Charcot Foundation, on
the steering committee for MAGNIMS and is the Oxford lead for the
European Rare Network for Neuromuscular diseases. She is an elected member of
council for the Association of British Neurologists.
COI form
Liesbet M.
Peeters is a
postdoctoral researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute of Hasselt
University (Belgium). In 2013, she finished her PhD in Bio-Engineering Sciences
at the KULeuven in Belgium. She has expertise in molecular genetic- and
immunological techniques as well as quantitative genetic analysis. Liesbet is
familiar with statistical programs, several data management software and has
experience in Bio-informatics. Her research focusses on developing data sharing
procedures using the FAIR principles (=Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and
Re-usable). Liesbet has been invited to speak at several international
conferences to summarize her data sharing vision. She attended the European
Medicine Agency (EMA) patient Registry Initiative workshop on Multiple
Sclerosis and participated at the stakeholder meeting of the Horizon2020
project MultipleMS in 2017. She is a member of the advisory board of the
European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)
initiative “European Health Data Platform”. She has recently been appointed as
the lead investigator of the BeNeLuxAI MS project investigating challenges
around joint drug assessment and data exchange. She is one of the main
initiators of the MS Data Alliance. The MS Data
Alliance aims to increase data quality by increasing the awareness of the
importance of real world data and to decrease the effort to find, access and
re-use data through the development of tools for data discovery and sharing.
The MS Data Alliance implements a true federated philosophy ensuring the
autonomy and independence of the stakeholders involved. The MS Data Alliance brings together registry
holders, patients, medical societies, academia, industry, MS umbrella
organisations, The EMA and Health Technology Assessment (HTA)
bodies. She is a member of the ELIXIR community focussing on constructing a
sustainable infrastructure for the sharing of biological information throughout
Europe. Elixir includes 20 countries covering
more than 180 research organisations all over Europe. Also, ELIXIR collaborates
closely with other key European and global initiatives and many of the existing
ESFRI Research Infrastructures and e-infrastructures.
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Dr.
Juan Ignacio Rojas is a Neurologist of the Multiple Sclerosis Department at the
Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Dr.
Rojas studied for his Masters in Clinical and Sanitary Effectiveness at the
Harvard School of Public Health in Buenos Aires between 2005 and 2010. In 2012,
Dr. Rojas completed his Masters in Health Economics and Pharmacoeconomics at
Pompeu Fabra University. He also has a Masters in Neuroimmunology, for which he
studied at the University of Barcelona.
Between
2007 and 2010, Dr. Rojas completed fellowships in Neurology and Neuroimmunology
and Demyelinating disease at the Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Prof.
Sven Schippling is currently Deputy Head of the Department of Neuroimmunology
and Clinical Multiple Sclerosis Research (nims) at the University Hospital Zurich,
Switzerland. He is the Co-Director of the Clinical Research Priority Program MS
(CRPPMS) and Consultant Neurologist at the Department of Neurology
at the University Hospital Zurich. He is a Senior Group Leader at the
Neuroscience Center Zurich of the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ)
and the University of Zurich (UZH). Prior to this, he was Head of the first MS
Day Clinic in Germany at the University Medical Center of Hamburg University,
Germany. From 2005 to 2006 he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the
Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK and the National Hospital
for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London.
Prof.
Schippling’s areas of special interest are clinical neuroimmunology, mainly
within the fields of multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum
disease (NMOSD). His research focuses include multimodal imaging methods in MS,
such as magnetic resonance imaging and optical coherence tomography,
transcranial magnetic stimulation and clinical trials including stem cell
therapies in MS.
Prof.
Schippling is also a member of the steering group for the ‘MS in the 21st
Century’ initiative, the multinational OCTIMS, BENEFIT11, EMPIRE, ENSEMBLE and
CLARIFY-MS trials and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications.
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Dr. Selmaj is the Professor of
Neurology at the Medical University of
Lodz (MUL) and a Visiting Associate
Professor at Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, New York. He is a Chairman at the
Department of Neurology and Director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory at the
MUL. Dr. Selmaj received training in neurology and neuroimmunology at the
Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London, and at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
Dr. Selmaj has been elected to serve
as a Vice-President of the European
Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS)
in 1999-2005 and a member of several other
international advisory boards. He wasa President of the Polish
Neurological Society. He served as a member of the editorial boards for
European Journal of Neurology,Journal of Neuroimmunology, and Polish
Neurology and Neurosurgery.His research activity considers investigations in
neurobiology and neuroimmunology with a particular interest in mechanisms of
demyelination and multiple sclerosis. He published over 150 papers in the field
of neurology and immunology.
Alessio
Signori is currently Researcher in Medical Statistics at University of Genoa,
Italy. He works in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) field since 8 years. During the PhD
in Biostatistics, obtained in 2013 and, subsequently, as post-doc in Biostatistics,
under the supervision of Prof. Maria Pia Sormani, he was involved mainly on
methodological aspects of projects on MS patients. In 2011 he was visiting
fellow at Neurological Centre of McGill University in Montreal under the
supervision of Prof. Douglas Arnold. In 2015 he was recipient of the MSBase
Fellowship. He had 3 oral presentation at ECTRIMS (2012,2016) and EAN (2014). At
August 2018 he is author or coauthor of more than 120 publications on
International Journals.
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Per Soelberg Sorensen is Professor of Neurology at the University of Copenhagen and senior consultant at
Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen. He is the founder of the Danish Multiple Sclerosis
Center.
Core elements in his research include development of new MS therapies, translational and biomarker
research, and he has initiated and conducted several large international trials.
He has authored more than 400 scientific publications, 353 of which are indexed in PubMed.
Professor Sorensen was Founding Editor‐in‐chief of the European Journal of Neurology from 1994 to 2003
and is currently member of the editorial board of Multiple Sclerosis Journal, European Journal of
Neurology, Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders, and Multiple Sclerosis and Demyelinating
Disorders.
Professor Sorensen is Secretary General of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in
Multiple sclerosis (ECTRIMS); Executive Board member of the European Academy of Neurology; Executive
Board member of the European Charcot Foundation for Research in Multiple Sclerosis; Member of the
Medical Advisory Board of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies (IFMSS); Member of
the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS, under the sponsorship of the US National MS
Society and ECTRIMS; and Chairman of the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Group.
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Dr Maria Pia Sormani is Professor of
Biostatistics at the University of Genoa, Italy. She received her Master
in Biostatistics at the University of Milan, her Master in Biophysics at the
University of Pisa and her degrees in Physics at the University of Genoa, in
Italy. She collaborated for more than ten years with the Neuroimaging Research
Unit at the S.Raffaele Hospital in Milan, studying the methodological issues
related to the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis. She
worked for about twelve years at the National Institute for Cancer Research in
Genoa in cancer clinical studies. She serves on the National MS Society
Clinical Trials Advisory Committee. She is on the faculty at the University of
Genoa, where she teaches Biostatistics and Research Methods to students in
medicine. She is Visiting Professor at the Imperial College of London. She is
in the editorial Board of Multiple Sclerosis Journal. She published more than
340 papers on peer reviewed journals.
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Maria Trojano is
Professor of Neurology at the University of Bari, Italy andis currently Head of the Department ofBasic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and
Sense Organs and Director ofthe Neurology
and Neurophysiopathology Units at the same University.
Professor Trojano was
President (2012-2014) of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in
Multiple Sclerosis(ECTRIMS). She is
Honorary Member of ECTRIMS. She is currently Member of the International
Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in MS, under the sponsorship of the US
National MS Society and ECTRIMS.Since 2000
she is Chair of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Registry. She is involved in a number
of Advisory Committees on clinical trials of new agents in MS.She
was member of the Education committee of theEuropean Academy of Neurology (EAN) and of Medical
and Scientific Advisory Board of Multiple Sclerosis International Federation
(MSIF).
She is active in
the design, implementation and analysis of phase IV clinical trials in MS and
conducts basic and applied research in Neuroepidemiology and Neurochemistry/Neuroimmunology.
She has published
over 300 original contributions in the MS field on international journals and
has authored a large number of book chapters.
Dr.
Charidimos Tsagkas grew up in Athens and graduated in medicine and obrained his
M.D. at the Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece in 2014. He went on to
specialize in neurology at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland and begun
his PhD studies focussing spinal cord atrophy in multiple sclerosis. In 2018 he
obtained his Dr. med. and he is expected to finish his PhD studies before the
end of 2018. He currently works as a resident neurologist at the University
Hospital Basel with a special interest in multiple sclerosis and as researcher
in the Translational Imaging in Neurology (ThINk) Basel Group. His main
research focus remains neuroimaging studies in MS.
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Prof. dr. Bernard
M.J. Uitdehaag (1958) studied medicine in Nijmegen and was trained in neurology
in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam he was also trained in epidemiology.
He is
involved in MS research since 1985 end did his PhD in MS research in 1998.
In 2009 he became
a professor of neuro-epidemiology and in 2010 chair of the department of
Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.
In 2013 he
became professor of Neurology and chair of the Department of Neurology in the
VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. In 2013 he also became Director of
the VUmc MS Center Amsterdam.
Between 2006
and 2014 he was member of the Netherlands Society of Neurology, being president
from 2011 until 2014.
He
(co-)authored around 300 scientific papers.
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Patrick Vermersch studied medicine at the University Hospital in Lille,
where he graduated in neurology. He then completed his education in more basic
research fields, mainly in cellular biology between 1990 and 1994 with a PhD
focused on biochemical abnormalities associated with Alzheimer’s and other
neurodegenerative diseases. He has also conducted research related to the
characterisations of post-transcriptional anomalies of Tau proteins. His
research interests then turned to multiple sclerosis (MS).
Prof. Vermersch is head of one of the departments of neurology at the
University of Lille, which
deals with MS and other neuroinflammatory diseases. The department’s
principal scientic interests
are neuroimmunology and markers of disease evolution.
Prof. Vermersch is currently vice-president of the University of Lille,
with the responsabilities of research in life sciences and health. In the year
2000, he created with colleagues the first MS network in northern France to
improve both care and research into MS. His current areas of interest are
prognostic markers of MS and neuroimmunology in general. He participates in
many therapeutic protocols on MS. He has published approximately 380 scientific
papers as author or co-author.
Sandra Vukusic
is professor of Neurology and head of the Multiple Sclerosis clinic (Neurology
dept. A) at the Lyon University Hospital, France. She is President of the EDMUS
Foundation, scientific coordinator of the Observatoire Français de la Sclérose
en Plaques(French
MS registry) and member of the Lyon Neuroscience research center (CRNL, UMR
CNRS 5292 & Inserm U1028).
Besides her neurological training in Lyon, France, she also
has a PhD in neuro-epidemiology. Together with her mentor Christian Confavreux,
she has been working since 1998 on the description of the natural history of
multiple sclerosis through the Lyon multiple sclerosis (MS) Cohort, introducing
new pathophysiological concepts. She continues to develop epidemiological
projects on long-term effect of immunoactive drugs on disability progression,
pregnancy issues and pharmacoepidemiology of disease-modifying drugs.
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