Anders Oldfors
Sweden

Professor of Pathology, Department of Pathology and Genetics, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Gothenburg, combined with appointment as Senior Consultant in Surgical Pathology, at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

A. Reghan Foley, MD, MD(Res)
USA

Dr. Foley trained in neuromuscular diseases with Dr. Carsten Bönnemann at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and with Professor Francesco Muntoni at the Dubowitz Neuromuscular Centre, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK. She completed an MD-Research degree focused on the COL6-related dystrophies at University College London and then worked at the Children’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland to expand neuromuscular diagnostic efforts. Dr. Foley presently works with Dr. Bönnemann in the Neuromuscular and Neurogenetics Disorders of Childhood Section, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA where she helps children with neuromuscular diseases arrive at genetic diagnoses and journey toward clinical trials.

Benedikt Schoser
Germany

Benedikt Schoser started his career at the lab of Hans Goebel in 1990. He was trained in Neurology, Neurological intensive care, palliative medicine, psychiatry, and neurophysiology at the Universities Mainz, Frankfurt, and Hamburg, Germany. He obtained his Habilitation in 2004. He is senior consultant neurologist and co-chair of the Friedrich-Baur- Institute. His research interests are translational therapy of multisystemic neuromuscular diseases.

Dr. Kevin Flanigan
USA

Dr. Kevin Flanigan is the Director of The Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he holds the Robert F. & Edgar T. Wolfe Foundation Endowed Chair in Neuromuscular Research. He is also the director of the NCH Neuromuscular Program, and is the director of the Nationwide Children’s NIAMS P50-funded Center for Research Translation (CORT) in Muscular Dystrophy Therapeutic Development. He trained in Neurology & Neuromuscular Medicine (residency & fellowship) at Johns Hopkins University, pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in Human Molecular Biology and Genetics at the University of Utah, and currently holds appointments as Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at the Ohio State University.
His research focuses on genotype/phenotype correlations in the muscular dystrophies and related disorders, with a goal of identifying new mutations and understanding molecular mechanisms that lead to amelioration of symptoms in order to identify new therapeutic pathways. His laboratory works primarily on AAV-based approaches to gene therapy, including viral-vector based exon skipping and gene replacement.

John Vissing
Denmark

Professor John Vissing is Director of the Copenhagen Neuromuscular Center at the National Hospital in Copenhagen. He has authored more than 300 scientific articles on muscle disease, and his research focusses on developing diagnostic tests and treatments for patients with muscle diseases.

Maxwell Damian, PhD, FNCS
UK

Consultant in Neurology and Neurocritical Care at Cambridge University Hospitals and Ipswich Hospital, UK, with subspecialty areas in Muscle Disease, Neurophysiology and Neurocritical Care for clinical work and research. Co-Chair of the Neurocritical Care Panel of the European Academy of Neurology. Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society (USA). Previously worked in Germany and Australia. Born in Hobart, Tasmania. Medical School in Mainz, Germany and London, UK.

Peter Van den Bergh
Belgium

Professor of Neurology, Director Neuromuscular Reference Centre, Head EMG Lab, Head Neuromuscular Pathology Lab.

Werner Stenzel
Germany

Werner Stenzel is Professor of Neuropathology and Neuroimmunology at the Charité University hospital in Berlin, Germany. He is a board certified Neurologist and Neuropathologist with strong interest in muscle patholgy and pathophysiology as well as inflammatory mechanisms of neuromuscular diseases. Werner serves as a member of the executive committee and the programme committee of WMS.