Brainflammation: The Role of the Innate Immune System in CNS Disorders

Speakers

Organizers

Robert Martone

Covance Biomarker Center of Excellence

Robert Martone is Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Lead for the Covance Biomarker Center of Excellence. He has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry leading neuroscience drug discovery and technology teams through all phases of discovery from target identification through clinical trials with expertise in both small molecule and protein therapeutics. He also has several years of academic research experience  in molecular neurobiology, with a focus on the molecular genetics of familial neuropathies, and CNS tumor biomarker development.

Sean Pintchovski, PhD

Lundbeck Research USA

Dr. Pintchovski earned a BS with Honors from the California Institute of Technology and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco while working at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and studying the regulation of neuronal gene expression underlying memory and cognition. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Elan Pharmaceuticals, where he worked to further elucidate key processes that contribute to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Pintchovski joined the Neuroinflammation Department at Lundbeck as a research scientist in early 2010. At Lundbeck his efforts have focused on applying a range of cutting edge techniques, including ex vivo FACS, to uncover how dysregulation of the immune system contributes to the pathogenesis of various neurodegenerative and psychiatric conditions. Dr. Pintchovski is driven by the desire to translate such fundamental discoveries into novel therapeutic approaches that will address the medical and social challenges posed by these devastating diseases.

Roland Staal, PhD

Lundbeck Research USA

Roland Staal received his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ with a focus on in vivo models of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, including amphetamines and MPTP, an animal model of Parkinson's disease. He did his post-doctoral studies at Columbia University, where he studied the function of alpha-synuclein as well as its role in sensitizing mice to the Parkinsonian neurotoxin MPTP. He then joined Wyeth Research's department of neurodegeneration, studying protein mis-folding and potential therapeutic interventions including aggregation inhibitors and immunotherapies for both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. He then joined Lundbeck Research, where he was instrumental in establishing the Neuroinflammation biology unit. The unit works with various technologies including flow cytometry, cell sorting, ELISAs and Cellomics to evaluate various markers and outcomes of Neuroinflammation in in vivo models as well as cell lines and primary neuronal and microglial cultures. His current focus is on targeting neuroinflammatory aspects of CNS diseases, in particular, neuronal–microglial communication.

Jennifer Henry, PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers

Hemmo A. Drexhage, MD, PhD

Erasmus Medical Center

Dr. Hemmo A. Drexhage is professor in Medical Immunology at the ErasmusMC (Rotterdam). He graduated from medical school in 1974 (Amsterdam), defended his immunology PhD thesis in 1977 (Amsterdam) and studied immunology/medical immunology with Brigid Balfour/John Humphrey (Mill Hill) and Ivan Roitt and Deborah Doniach (Middlesex Hospital) in London from 1976–1981 (on exchange grants of the Royal Dutch and English Societies of Science). His subject of studies has ever since been focussed on the clinical picture and immune diagnosis of autoimmune diseases of endocrine glands (thyroid, islets of Langerhans, adrenal, ovary, pituitary) and the initiating role of aberrant dendritic cells and macrophages in thepathogenesis of these diseases. The higher prevalence of endocrine autoimmunities in severe mood disorders sparkled in 1996 his interest into studies on the role of immune cells in bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post partum psychosis and schizophrenia. He has published over 350 articles/book chapters on these subjects and supervised more than 30 PhD students.

Ru-Rong Ji, PhD

Harvard University and Brigham & Women's Hospital

Ru-Rong Ji received his PhD degree in Neurobiology at Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He had postdoctoral trainings in Peking University, Karolinska Institute, and Harvard Medical School. Currently he is an associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is also director of Sensory Plasticity Laboratory and associate director of the Pain Research Center. He has been working on spinal cord mechanisms of chronic pain for 20 years. His work has demonstrated important roles of glial cells (eg., microglia), MAP kinase signaling pathways, and cytokines/chemokines in the control of neuropathic pain. His recent work has also revealed important role of pro-resolution lipid mediators in the resolution of inflammation and pain. Dr. Ji has published more than one hundred papers on chronic pain mechanisms and treatments.

Dave Morgan, PhD

University of South Florida

Dave Morgan is Chief Executive Officer/Director of the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer Institute, Distinguished Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, and Director of Neuroscience Research for the College of Medicine and at the University of South Florida. Dr. Morgan’s research interests are aging and brain function, focusing on drugs to treat Alzheimer’s dementia. Morgan participated in the development of a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (APP+PS1). His work focuses largely on the neuro-immune interactions associated with the Alzheimer phenotype, and the role of astrocytes and microglia in the disease process. He is presently testing anti-amyloid immunotherapy and gene therapy to treat the Alzheimer-like changes in transgenic mouse models of the disease. This work is supported by multiple grants from the NIH, private foundations and contracts from industrial partners. Morgan regularly sits on review panels for NIH and other agencies evaluating grants to develop new drugs to treat Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Carlos A. Pardo-Villamizar, MD

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Dr. Pardo is an Associate Professor of Neurology and clinician-scientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology (Division of Neuroimmunology and Neuroinfectious Disorders) and Pathology (Neuropathology) in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the principal investigator of the Neuroimmunopathology Laboratory, member of the HIV Neurosciences Research Group and clinical neurologist at the Multiple Sclerosis and Transverse Myelitis Centers at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Pardo's research interest and laboratory work focuses on studies of the 1) Immunopathological and molecular mechanisms of associated with neuroimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, neuroAIDS as well as epilepsy and autism, 2) the role of cytokines and chemokines in neurobiological processes and pathogenic mechanisms in neurological disorders, 3) Studies of biomarkers of neuroimunological disease in cerebrospinal fluid and blood and 4) Animal models of neuroimmunological disorders. Dr. Pardo's interest on autism centers on the role of neuroimmune factors and neuroglia in the pathogenesis of this neurodevelopmental disorder. His laboratory has contributed to the study of the role of microglia activation in the cerebral cortex and the function of cytokines and chemokines as factors involved in neurobiological processes associated with disturbances of developmental and neurobehavioral trajectories that characterize autism. His laboratory is also working on the identification of CSF and blood biomarkers that may facilitate a better understanding of pathogenesis and phenotypic characterization of autism.

V. Hugh Perry, DPhil

University of Southampton, UK

Hugh Perry obtained his first degree at the University of Oxford where he completed his DPhil in neuroscience in 1977. He remained at the University of Oxford and was appointed to a Locke Fellow of the Royal Society and then a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. He was appointed Professor in Experimental Neuropathology (1996). In 1998 he moved to the University of Southampton to take up his current post. His research interests are in the field of interactions between the immune system and nervous system. He has published more than 275 peer-reviewed papers. He has sat on research advisory and funding panels for the Medical Research Council, and a number of biomedical charities including the Multiple Sclerosis Society, International Spinal Research Trust and Motor Neuron Disease Association: he chaired the Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience panel of the Wellcome Trust 2004–2007. He has acted as a consultant for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the area of neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative disease. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2005), is Deputy Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. He has been appointed to Chair of the Medical Research Council Neuroscience and Mental Health Board from 1st April 2012.

Richard Ransohoff, MD

Lerner Research Institute

Richard M. Ransohoff serves at the Cleveland Clinic as Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center in the Department of Neurosciences of the Lerner Research Institute; Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine; and Staff Neurologist in the Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research.

Among his many awards are a Physician's Research Training Award from the American Cancer Society (1984–86); a Clinical Investigator Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; 1988–1993); the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute's Award for Excellence in Science in 2006; the Cleveland Clinic's Scientific Achievement Award in Basic Science 2009. He was invited to give the F. E. Bennett Memorial Lecture to the American Neurological Association in 2009. He has been cited from 1996 through the present in "Best Doctors in America" for his expertise in the clinical care of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Dr. Ransohoff serves as regular member on study sections of the NIH and NMSS (as Chair) and is currently a regular member of the CMBG Study Section. He has served on the Editorial Boards of The Journal of Immunology, (2002–2005 as Section Editor) Trends in Immunology, the Journal of Neuroimmunology; Nature Reviews Immunology, and Neurology (Associate Editor).

Dr. Ransohoff's research focuses on the functions of chemokines and chemokine receptors in development, cell biology and pathology of the nervous system. With a longstanding interest in the mechanisms of action of interferon-beta. Dr. Ransohoff has received continuous research support from the NIH and the NMSS for more than 20 years. In Entrez/PubMed, he lists more than 275 articles of which more than 215 are peer-reviewed scientific reports. He has written numerous book chapters, and edited five books.

Dr. Ransohoff is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, and the American Association of Physicians and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Jun Tan, MD, PhD

University of South Florida College of Medicine

In 1983, Dr. Jun Tan received his Bachelors of Medicine at the Third Medical University in Chongqing, China. He went on to earn his Masters of Science in human genetics at Fudan University, Shanghai in 1989. Three years later, he completed his Doctoral Degree at the Third Medical University/Fudan University. Following, he was promoted to both full Professor and Chief of the Department of Molecular Genetics from 1990 to 1994 at the Third Medical University in Chongqing, China. He completed postdoctoral studies in 1996 at the Department of Human Genetics/Immunology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Tan then completed his research fellowship in 1998 at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer & Research Institute in Tampa, Florida. Upon completion, he became Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Microbiology & Immunology at the University of South Florida (USF) in 1998 and Associate Professor 2004. In 2007, Dr. Tan was named the Robert A. Silver Endowed Chair in Developmental Neurobiology and currently directs the Developmental Neurobiology Laboratory at the Silver Child Development Center, USF Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Tan has published over 100 scientific papers, several of them in journals such as Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Medicine, EMBO J, PNAS, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Immunology, JBC, PloS One, Neurobiology of Disease, and The European Journal of Immunology. Based on these works, Dr. Tan is the recipient of a number of federal grants as PI, including NIH/NINDS (R01/2004), NIH/NIA (P01/2006), NIH/NIA (R01/2009), NIH/NIMH (R21/2007/2010), NIH/NIA (R21/2010) and NIH/NIA (STTR/SBIR/2006/2008/2009). In addition, he also receives funding from the James A. Haley VA Medical Center (2009), the Alzheimer's Association (2004), as well as the Johnny Byrd Alzheimer Center & Institute (2005/2006), and The Institute for the Study of Aging (ISOA/2006).

Annamaria Vezzani, PhD

Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research

Annamaria Vezzani, PhD degree in Neuropharmacology in Milano at the Mario Negri Inst for Pharmacol Res (IRFMN). She spent her post-doctoral period at the Univ of Maryland in Baltimore working in experimental models of epilepsy. Additional post-doctoral periods were done at the Univ of Stockholm and at the Karolinska Institute. She was on sabbatical at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2002 in the laboratory of Developmental Epilepsy.

The present research is on the functional role of neuroactive peptides and inflammatory mediators in the modulation of seizures and in the mechanisms of pharmacoresistance. Since 1997 she is Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Neurology in the Department of Neuroscience at the IRFMN.

Dr. Vezzani is member of the Editorial Board of Epilepsy Currents, Epilepsy Research, Epilepsy and Treatments and Neuroscience and Associate Editor of Basic Science for Epilepsia. She has been appointed (2006–2009) of the Chair of the Commission on Neurobiology of International League Against Epilepsy promoting initiatives for improving translational research in epilepsy. She received the Research Recognition Award for translational research in 2009 by the American Epilepsy Society.