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Peter Agre, Ph.D.
Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Director, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
Nobel Laureate 2003
Dr. Agre's research in red-blood-cell biochemistry led to the first-known membrane defects in congenital hemolytic anemias (spherocytosis) and produced the first isolation of the Rh blood group antigens. In 1992, his laboratory became widely recognized for discovering aquaporins. For this work, he shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Roderick MacKinnon of Rockefeller University. Dr. Agre was later awarded a JHMRI pilot grant to extend his studies of aquaporins to malaria, addressing the question of whether or not aquaporins could be exploited as a means of treating or preventing the disease. Initial encouraging results have led to an NIH grant and a focus on malaria as the primary area of study in Dr. Agre's laboratory. His honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000, the Institute of Medicine in 2005, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003, and the American Philosophical Society in 2004. He has also received honorary doctorates from universities in Denmark, Japan, Norway, Greece, Mexico, Hungary, Poland and the United States. Dr. Agre maintains an affiliation with Duke University where, among other duties, he promoted the growth of a research program in malaria.
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Amit Bar-Or, M.D.
Associate Professor, Neurology and Neurosurgery
Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Montreal Neurological Institute
Dr. Bar-Or's research is directed at understanding the basic properties of B cells and T cells and the ways in which they may participate in neurological diseases. Of particular interest is studying memory B cell and memory T cell responses, their interactions, and their relevance to the disease multiple sclerosis. Another focus of his research relates to the investigation of novel therapeutics in multiple sclerosis and the development and application of biological assays to monitor the disease process and evaluate response to treatment.
Dr. Bar-Or completed undergraduate studies in biopsychology at McMaster University (1988) and received his medical degree cum laude from McGill University (1993). He then pursued Internship and Neurology Residency training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University Medical School, subsequently completing postdoctoral fellowships in Immunology at the Center for Neurologic Disease, Harvard, and in Clinical Investigation and Translational Research at Harvard and MIT. He was recruited to the MNI as a clinician Scientist in 2000.
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Terrence F. Blaschke, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and of Molecular Pharmacology (Active Emeritus),
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Blaschke is Professor of Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Active Emeritus) at Stanford University, Adjunct Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at UCSF and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Indiana University.
Dr. Blaschke is a past president of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT). He is the recipient of the Rawls-Palmer award, the Henry W Elliott award and the Oscar B. Hunter award from ASCPT. He has been a consultant and past Chair of the Generic Drugs Advisory Committee of the US FDA and of the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee. He chaired the Drug Utilization Review Panel of USP and also served on the Board of Directors of Therapeutic Discovery Corporation of Palo Alto, Crescendo Pharmaceuticals. He is now a director of DURECT Corporation.
He was a member of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) at its inception, and served as chair of the Pharmacology Committee and a member of the Executive Committee of ACTG. His research has been primarily in the area of clinical investigation, focusing on the clinical pharmacology of drugs used in patients with HIV infection and an emphasis on modeling exposure-response relationships and adherence. His involvement in clinical trials and with the pharmaceutical industry has lead to a strong interest in approaches to improve the efficiency of drug development process. |
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Michael Sofroniew, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Brain Research Institute
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Sofroniew’s research is directed at understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms of injury, inflammation and repair in the central nervous system (CNS). Over the last 15 years, using transgenic mouse models, his laboratory has identified astrocytes as pivotal cells in regulating and restraining the spread of inflammatory cells in the brain and spinal cord during a variety of disease-related conditions, including autoimmune inflammation. Dr. Sofroniew is an experienced reviewer in the area of CNS inflammation, injury and disease, and has served for many years as a member and Chair of numerous grant review panels for the NIH and various national and international charitable organizations. |
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Katja Van Herle, M.D., M.S.P.H.
Katja Van Herle serves as the President and CEO of the All Greater Good Foundation in San Diego, California. She maintains a clinical faculty appointment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine, with a clinical practice in Los Angeles.
Dr. Van Herle is a member of the American Thyroid Association, The American Medical Association, The American Diabetes Association, and has won an Award of Excellence and Humanitarianism in Internal Medicine from the Clinical Faculty Association of the UCLA Department of Medicine. In 2007 she was named as one of America's Top Physicians in Endocrinology by the Consumer Research Council of America and is recognized as the 2008 Professional of the Year in the area of Internal Medicine in the Global Directory of Who's Who. Dr. Van Herle's current public health projects focus on helping educate and empower patients and community members with respect to their general healthcare as well as specifically focusing on the area of cardiovascular diseases, including obesity and diabetes.
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Andre Van Herle, M.D.
Professor of Medicine (Active Emeritus),
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Van Herle obtained his medical degree at the University of Leuven (Belgium), where he completed his residency in Medicine. He then joined the Endocrine fellowship program at UCLA and became a faculty member in 1969. He is a professor of Medicine and was acting Chief of the Endocrine Division and Director of the Endocrine training program for many years.
Dr. Van Herle is nationally and internationally known for his contributions to thyroidology, and is considered the father of the Thyroglobulin assay, a crucial tool in the detection of thyroid tumor recurrence or metastatic disease. He is author and co-author of more than 100 articles and book chapters. His interest is the isolation of anti-cancer agents and the signal transduction mechanisms involved in anti-tumor properties. His clinical interest includes general Endocrinology, thyroidology including thyroid cancer.
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Richard M. Ransohoff, M.D.
Director, Neuroinflammation Research Center, Dept. of Neurosciences of the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic
Professor, Molecular Medicine, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic
Staff Neurologist, Mellen Center for MS Treatment & Research
Richard M. Ransohoff serves at the Cleveland Clinic as Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center in the Dept. 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. Dr. Ransohoff graduated with honors from Bard College, Annandale, NY with a B.A. in Literature, and received the M.D. (with AOA election) from CWRU School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH. He completed residencies in Internal Medicine (Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Cleveland, OH; Board Certified 1981) and Neurology (CCF; Board Certified 1985). From 1984 until 1989, Dr. Ransohoff was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Nilsen, Dept. of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, CWRU School of Medicine.
Among other honors and awards, he received a Physician’s Research Training Award from the American Cancer Society (1984-86); a Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholarship from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS; 1987-1992); a Clinical Investigator Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; 1988-1993); and the John and Samuel Bard Award in Science and Medicine, 2002. 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 was elected to the American Association of Physicians (AAP) in 2006. He received the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute’s Award for Excellence in Science in 2006. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2008, he served as John N. Whitaker/ANA Visiting Professor of Neurology at University of California, Irvine. In 2009, he received the F.E. Bennett Memorial Lectureship of the ANA.
Dr. Ransohoff served as regular member on study sections of the NIH and NMSS (as Chair). 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). From 1998-2000, Dr. Ransohoff was a member of the NINDS Director's Planning Panel on “The Neural Environment”. He is or has been a member of the Steering Committee for the NIH Therapeutic Development Program in Spinal Muscular Atrophy; the International Advisory Boards for the 7th (2004) and 8th (2006) Congresses on Neuroimmunology; and the Scientific Advisory Board for Chemocentryx, Mountain View, CA; Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA; and GSK-China, Shanghai, PRC. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Gladstone Institute for Neurological Disease at University of California, San Francisco. He serves or has served on External Advisory Boards for CHARTER (CNS HIV Anti-Retroviral Therapy Effects Research; MH22005); a Program Project on Alexander’s Disease (NS 42803); the MS Lesion Project (NMSS RG 3185); the University of Nebraska’s Center for Neurovirology & Neurodegenerative Disorders (NS43985) and as External Advisor for the European Union’s Project on ‘Mechanisms of Brain Inflammation” (QLG3-00612). He is a member of the National MS Society’s Medical Advisory Board. He has been Co-director of the Marine Biological Laboratory’s (MBL) Special Topics course on “Pathogenesis of Neuroimmunologic Disease” held biennially at Wood’s Hole, MA. He was a member of the External Advisory Board for Meharry Medical College’s Special Neuroscience Research Program (SNRP).
For more than a decade, Dr. Ransohoff’s research has focused on the functions of chemokines and chemokine receptors in development, cell biology and pathology of the nervous system. He also has a longstanding and continuing 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 250 articles of which more than 200 are 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.
Dr. Ransohoff is married to Margaret Seidler Ransohoff. They have two daughters, Amy Julia (20) and Lena Jane (15).
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Terry J. Smith, M.D.
Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center
Professor of Internal Medicine
Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes
Dr. Smith, the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Michigan, is an internationally-known endocrinologist who has studied Graves’ disease, its eye manifestations, and related autoimmune disease for over 20 years. Dr. Smith’s laboratory was first to describe the unique molecular attributes of tissue surrounding the eye that make it susceptible to inflammation in Graves' disease. He has identified a novel autoantibody that binds to and activates a specific receptor, resulting in an exaggerated autoimmune response. His investigation of these mechanisms has yielded several potential therapeutic targets that may interrupt the disease process. These will provide the focus for future clinical trials.
Dr. Smith received his medical degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine and completed his residency at the University of Illinois in Chicago and Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. He has completed fellowships in biophysics at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, in molecular biochemistry at Columbia University in New York, and clinical endocrinology at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago.
Dr. Smith is the author of over 150 articles and book chapters, and has been awarded five patents for his research discoveries. He has been elected to the Orbit Society, is chief scientific officer for the National Graves' Foundation, and serves as reviewer for numerous scientific journals. Dr. Smith has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health and the Veteran's Administration since 1983.
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Howard Weiner, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Center for Neurologic Diseases,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director, Multiple Sclerosis Program,
Partners MS Center in Boston, MA
At the Partners MS Center the study of MS has entered a new era with a ten-year study that will involve over 1,000 MS patients. Major questions regarding MS are unanswered, including how does treatment affect the long-term clinical course of the disease and are there major subcategories of the disease with different implications for treatment and outcome. Advances in the ability to clinically measure and monitor the disease (MRI, immunology, genetics) provide the opportunity to address these critical questions. The study’s goal is to establish a new definition of the course of MS that will serve as a benchmark for the future and will have a major impact on the care of MS patients and MS clinical research.
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Michael Yeaman, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, UCLA
Dr. Michael Yeaman was recruited to conduct NIH and AHA Fellowships in Infectious Diseases/Immunobiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, where he remains as faculty. His research focuses on multiple integrated themes: 1) host-pathogen interactions; 2) immunobiology of innate immune effector molecules; 3) pattern recognition and response circuitries in infection and immunity; and 4) translational approaches for immunotherapeutic strategies to confront antibiotic-resistant infections and complex diseases. His laboratory team identified the modular platelet-derived peptides that simultaneously kill pathogens, and coordinate ensuing host cell-mediated immune responses. He discovered the structural and functional homology of S. aureus and C. albicans adhesins and invasins that enabled development of the first vaccine that affords cross kingdom protection against these escalating human pathogens, and discovery of the first fungal invasin. Recently, his laboratory discovered a multidimensional signature present in host defense effector proteins: the γ−core motif. Based on such advances, context-activated protides have been engineered and patented.
Dr. Yeaman is Professor of Medicine, and serves as Vice–Chair of Research in the Department of Medicine at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. He co-directs the Fellowship Training Program in Infectious Diseases at Harbor-UCLA, teaches microbial pathogenesis & host defense in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and he lectures locally, nationally and internationally. He currently serves as an appointed member of the NIH Host Interactions with Bacterial Pathogens study section.
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Guthy-Jackson
Charitable Foundation |
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NMO Research