Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University
Coordinator Neuroimmunology Disease Group, Montreal Neurological Institute
Director, Neuroscience Initiative Advanced Science Research Center
Professor of Biology and Biochemistry
The Graduate Center,
The City University of New York
Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai
Professor, Department of Immunology, University of Washington
Jack Antel is a clinical neurologist who coordinates the multiple sclerosis research and treatment program at the Montreal Neurological Institute. He is a Professor at McGill University where he has served as Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. Prior to his work at McGill, he was a Professor of Neurology at the University of Chicago. He was Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada from January 2004-2007. From 2007-2015 he was the National Scientific Director of the endMS Research and Training Network supported by the MS Society of Canada. From 2004 to 2006 he served as President of the International Society of Neuroimmunology. He was president of ACTRIMS (American Committee for Research and Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis) from 2016-2019. From 2006-2019, he served as the Editor for the Americas of the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. His research interests include understanding the mechanisms of tissue injury and repair that account for the characteristic disease course of multiple sclerosis and how these can be therapeutically targeted. Dr. Antel was the recipient of the 2005 Dystel Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Academy of Neurology
Patrizia Casaccia, MD PhD is an internationally recognized expert in the field of epigenetics and myelination with a keen interest in the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in demyelinating disorders and regenerative strategies. She received her medical degree in Rome, and then moved to the United States where she obtained a PhD in Neurobiology at the State University of New York (SUNY) Health and Science Center Brooklyn. After her post-doctoral work at Weil Cornell Medical Center in New York, she moved to the Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine at NYU and then to Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (Rutgers Medical School) as Assistant and then Associate Professor. In 2008 she moved to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, as Professor of Neuroscience, Genomics and Neurology. In 2016 she became Director of the Neuroscience Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center, an interdisciplinary Research enterprise of the Graduate Center of The City University of New York, where she is also professor of Biology and Biochemistry. Dr. Casaccia’s research is focused on the mechanisms underlying myelin formation during development and after demyelination in the adult brain. Her research group pioneered the concept of epigenetic regulation of gene expression in oligodendrocytes and then extended the interest to the investigation of immune cells in patients with Multiple Sclerosis and related animal models. Because epigenetics is a mechanism by which the environment can modulate gene expression, the research focus includes the analysis of the effect of environmental variables, such as diet, life-style, body-mass index and gut-microbiota on the epigenome and the consequences on brain health. Dr. Casaccia’s research is or has been funded by grants from the NIH, by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program in Multiple Sclerosis and by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Dr. Goverman received her Bachelors of Arts in Chemistry from Brandeis University in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from UCLA in 1983. She was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA and the California Institute of Technology studying of role of T cells during an immune response. Dr. Goverman joined the faculty in the School of Medicine at the University of Washington in 1992 as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Goverman’s research focuses on developing new animal models that better replicate the diverse immune pathology seen in multiple sclerosis. Her overall goal is to define the pathogenic pathways underlying MS and identify potential points of therapeutic intervention. In particular, her research has generated novel findings about interactions between different myelin protein-specific T lymphocyte subsets and how these cells contribute to central nervous system autoimmunity. Dr. Goverman’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1994. She received the Harry Weaver Neuroscience Junior Faculty Award in 1995 from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), has served as a grant reviewer for the NMSS for many years and is currently a member of the NMSS Research Programs Advisory Committee. Dr. Goverman is also a member of the NIH Clinical Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumors Study Section. She is the currently the recipient of an NIH Merit Award. She was appointed Chair of the Department of Immunology in 2010 and continues in this role.
Douglas Arnold, MD is a Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, Director of the Magnetic Resonance Studies lab in the Brain Imaging Center at the Montreal Neurological Institute, and President of NeuroRx Research, a central nervous system imaging contract research organization. He has special expertise in advanced MRI acquisition and analysis techniques, particularly as they relate to understanding the evolution of multiple sclerosis and the measurement of markers of inflammation, remyelination and neuroprotection.