ISGC Member Biographies

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Dr Foad Abd-Allah

Dr Abd-Allah graduated from Cairo University, Kasr El-Aini school of Medicine in 1994. He has since undertaken a number of postdoctoral fellowships and training opportunities in both Europe and the USA. Dr Abd-Allah's main interest is vascular neurology and stroke medicine. He pioneered the Neurovascular Ultrasound diagnostic unit at Cairo University Hospitals in 2006. Dr Abd-Allah has extensively published in the field of cerebrovascular disease and Stroke. He is a reviewer and a member of the editorial board for a number of peer reviewed journals including Neurology, Neuroimaging, Frontiers of Neurology, World Journal of Cardiovascular disease and the journal of Vascular Interventional Neurology. He was recognised recently by the World Stroke Organisation (WSO) as board director for the Middle East, North Africa and East Mediterranean region.

Dr Rufus Akinyemi, PhD, MSc, MWACP, FMCP

Rufus Akinyemi is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Genomics and Precision Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Neuroscience and Ageing Research Unit, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Consultant Neurologist to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. He holds a PhD from Newcastle University, United Kingdom, an MSc in Cell Biology and Genetics, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Ibadan. He undertook his residency training in Internal Medicine and Neurology at the University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria. Akinyemi is  an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health in the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), based in the Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland;  member,  Stroke Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study; represents Africa on committees of the World Stroke Organization and also represents Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) on the Vascular Professional Interest Area of The Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART).  He’s also a member of the Steering Committee of the WSO-WHO-Lancet Commission on Stroke in LMICs. He serves as principal investigator (genomics and biorepository) in the Stroke and Investigative Research and Education Network (SIREN) Study, the current largest study of stroke in Africa. He’s first author on seminal papers describing associations of genetic factors and stroke in indigenous Africans including the first-ever association of the APOLI gene with small vessel ischemic stroke. He has won several awards, scholarships and fellowships including the James Kimani Lectureship of the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA) and the Bruce Schoenberg International Award in Neuroepidemiology of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). He has over 100 peer- reviewed publications including papers in Brain, Lancet and Science.

Dr Christopher Anderson, MD, MMSc

Christopher D. Anderson, M.D. is an Assistant in Neurology in the Division of Neurocritical Care and Emergency Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Instructor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School. Chris is a neurocritical care and acute stroke physician with research expertise in the medical genetics of complex diseases, specifically ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. He is a faculty member of the MGH Center for Human Genetic Research and is an Associated Researcher at the Broad Institute. His lab is dedicated to using genetic tools to explore the pathways and biological systems that influence acute brain injuries such as ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, with the ultimate goal of identifying new drug targets to modify risk and recovery in cerebrovascular disease.

Professor Marcel Arnold, MD

Prof. Dr. Marcel Arnold is the Chairman of the Stroke Centre of the University Hopsital Berne and a University Professor of Clinical Neurology at the University of Berne, Switzerland. His main research area of interest is the pathogenesis, imaging, treatment and prognosis of ischaemic stroke. A special interest is dedicated to cervicocerebral artery dissections, advanced neuroimaging, cerebral venous thrombosis and to biomarkers in cerebrovascular diseases. He is the President of the Swiss Stroke Comission and the Vice-President of the Swiss Federation of Clinical Neurosocieties (SFCNS), the Co-Chairman of the International Study Group on Biomarkers in Cerebrovascular Diseases (IBCD) and a member of the European Stroke Organisation Trials Network Committee and Educational Committee.

Professor Masharip Atadzhanov, MD, PhD, DSc, FRCP

Dr Atadzhanov is Professor of Neurology at the University of Zambia, School of Medicine and Honary Consultant Neurologist at University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. He is trained in neurology and clinical genetics and obtained his PhD in the clinical genetic study of Parkinson's disease at the Central Postgraduate Training Institute for Physicians in Moscow. Dr Atadzhanov's research focuses on genetic and environmental contributors to ischaemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage risk in Zambian patients. He is currently the PI of the Zambian Stroke Study which is conducting research in collaboration with the Departments of Neuroscience and Neurology at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, USA. His other research interests include clinical and genetic aspects of Parkinson's disease and Spino-cerebellar ataxias in the Zambian population. Dr Atadzhanov is chairman of the Neurological and Psychatric Society of Zambia.

Professor John Attia, MD, PhD

Dr Attia is co-director of HMRI's CReDITSS (clinical Research Design, IT, and Statistical Support) Unit, providing epidemiological, methodological and analysis services to a wide range of biomedical researchers. As a member of HMRI's Information Based Medicine and Public Health programs, he has personally developed high-level, multidisciplinary collaborations with renowned researchers within Australia and around the world.

Dr Hakan Ay, MD

Dr Ay's research involves using imaging to investigate the clinic-anatomic-functional relationships in ischaemic brain injury. Dr Ay has developed various MRI-based methods to map clinical deficits using non-a priori anatomical hypotheses, to identify stroke etiology, and to predict tissue and clinical outcome following ischaemic stroke and TIA. He co-created the Causative Classification of Stroke System (CCS) used for phenotyping in SiGN.

Dr. Awa Ba

Dr. Ba has a master’s degree in Neuroepidemiology obtained at the Institute of Neurological Epidemiology and Tropical Neurology (Limoges, France), a master’s degree in Physiology and a PhD in Neurophysiology obtained at the Faculty of Medicine of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in collaboration with the Inernational Mixt Unit (UMI) 3189 CNRS-UCAD (Dakar, Senegal). Since 2015 Dr. Ba has been teaching physiology in the medicine department of the training and research unit in community health and sustainable development at Alioune Diop University (Bambey, Senegal).

 

Dr. Ba is a young searcher passionate by the neurological functioning. Her research fields are focused on chronic noncommunicable diseases and more particularly on neurological diseases. Dr. Ba carries out studies on epilepsy and on cerebrovascular accident in sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in Senegal. This research resulted in scientific publications. Currently she is interested in stroke genetics in the Senegalese population and more generally in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Miguel Barboza, MD

Miguel Barboza is a stroke neurologist at the Hospital Rafael A. Calderon Guardia, for the Social Security Health System in San Jose, Costa Rica, and is also an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Universidad de Costa Rica, School of Medicine and School of Health Technologies. He received his medical degree and completed his neurology residency at the Universidad de Costa Rica, and recently finished his vascular neurology fellowship at the Instituto Nacional de Neurologia in Mexico City, where he has been working in basic research related to the genetics of cerebral venous thrombosis, cervical artery dissection and atherothrombotic stroke. He is also part of the European Master in Stroke Medicine Program from the European Stroke Organisation and Krems an der Donau University in Austria.

Dr Steve Bevan, BSc, PhD

Steve Bevan graduated from the University of Portsmouth with first class honours and subsequently obtained his PhD from the University of London specialising in genetics. A 5 year position as a post doc and senior post-doc in cancer genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research led to tenure at St George's, University of London, rising to Reader in Cerebrovascular Genetics. He moved to Cambridge University in 2013 for 2 years, then took up the position of Deputy Head of the School of Life Sciences at hte University of Lincoln in 2015. Steve Bevan has an interest primarily in population genetics, statistical genetics, genome wide association studies and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular genetics, but is happy to work with any disease that has a genetic basis and sufficientcases for meaningful population genetic investigation. He has published over 70 peer reviewed articles in the field of genetics and has PI or co-applicant research funding from The Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation, The Stroke Association and the European Union among other sources.

Dr Giorgio Boncoraglio, MD

Giorgio Boncoraglio is a Neurologist from the Cerebrovascular Diseases Department at Fondazione IRCCS Instituto Neurologico Carlo Besta in Milan. He has been based there since 1999, initially as a student visitor. He has also been an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the Western Infirmary General Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, and Clinical Observor at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.

His clinical interests are in stroke and cerebrovascular disease, including assessment for endovascular and neurosurgical treatments of cervical and intracranial vascular diseases. His research interests are in using genetic approaches and clinical databases to investigate the pathogenesis of ischaemic stroke. He is also interested in using stem cell therapy for ischaemic stroke patients.

Dr Robynne Braun, MD, PhD

Dr. Braun is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland with a PhD in Kinesiology and clinical training in Rehabilitation Medicine. She is funded by an NIH Neurorehabilitation and Restorative Neuroscience Training Network (NRNTN) K12 Scholar grant for a new line of research focusing on rehabilitation of the upper extremity after stroke and how genetic polymorphisms affect the propensity for post-stroke motor recovery.

Professor Joseph Broderick, MD

Dr Broderick has contributed to cerebrovascular research in innumerable ways including dissecting the genetics of intracranial aneurysms

Dr. Stacy Brown, M.D.

Dr. Stacy Brown is a neurointensivist at The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawai`i and Assistant Professor at the University of Hawai`i John A. Burns School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University and her medical doctorate from Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. She completed her internship, neurology residency, and neurocritical care fellowship at Yale New Haven Hospital-Yale School of Medicine, where she also served as Chief Resident. Dr. Brown is active in clinical and translational research, with a focus on cerebrovascular health and research equity for underrepresented populations in the Pacific Islands. She serves as the Program Director of Neuroscience Research at The Queen's Medical Center.

Dr John W Cole, MD, MS

Dr Cole is an Associate Professor of Neurology at University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA. His research focuses on understanding stroke etiology through epidemiologic and genetic approaches that lead to the development of new preventative strategies; development of new drugs for stroke prevention, as well as using genetic testing to identify high risk individuals for personalised stroke risk factor modification; research also focuses upon stroke risk as mediated through genetic predisposition and environmental factors, including cigarette smoking and infectious etiologies among others.

Dr Carlos Cruchaga

Dr. Cruchaga is a human genomicist with expertise in multi-omics, informatics, and neurodegeneration.  He completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2005 at University of Navarra (Spain). During his first postdoc with Dr. Pastor he conducted human genetics studies focused on Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD). He then moved to Dr. Goate Lab to complete his training in quantitative human genomics. Dr. Cruchaga established his laboratory at Washington University in 2011, studying the genetic architecture of neurodegenerative diseases. His interests are focused in using human genomic and other omic data (transcriptomics, proteomic, metabolomics, lipidomics) to identify and understand the biological process that lead to AD, PD, frontotemporal dementia and other neurodegenerative processes. His laboratory has pioneered the use of next-generation sequencing technology to identify novel functional variants implicated on AD and PD. Additionally, his lab has been using RNA-seq data from human brain tissue and network analyses in order to identify novel pathways and pathogenic implicated on neurodegenerative diseases. In 2019, he became the scientific director of the McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI) at Washington University and funding director of the NeuroGenomics and Informatics center.

Dr Adam de Havenon, MD

Dr de Havenon is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Utah, School of Medicine. After receiving his BA from Yale University (New Haven, CT) in 2001, he received his medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine in 2009 (Prividence RI) and completed internship and neurology residency at the University of Utah in 2013. He recently finished a vascular neurology fellowship at University of Washington (Seattle WA), where he pursued additional training and certification in carotid and transcranial doppler (TCD) ultrasound. Dr de Havenon's independent research is focused on the use of MRI and TCD to develop subacute and secondary stroke prevention treatment paradigms. As a junior faculty member hoping to start a research career, he is very interested in any and all collaboration!

Professor Stéphanie Debette, MD, PhD

Stéphanie Debette is Professor of Epidemiology at Bordeaux University and INSERM Center U1219, France, where she directs the VINTAGE team. She is also practicing neurologist at Bordeaux University Hospital and Adjunct Associate Professor in the department of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, USA. Her research focuses on investigating the genetic and environmental determinants of cerebral small artery disease, stroke, MRI-markers of brain aging, and cognition. She is a Chair of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC); coordinator of the international CADISP consortium on genetic and environmental risk factors of cervical artery dissections and young stroke and coordinator of the Bordeaux Hospital-University Federation SMART on small artery disease in brain, heart and retina. She co-organizes the Neurepiomics Summer School, an international course on “neuroepidemiology in the omics era.  She is a longstanding collaborator of the CHARGE consortium, where she co-leads projects on the genomics of stroke, MRI-markers of vascular brain injury and memory.

Professor Martin Dichgans, MD

Dr Dichgans major areas of research are the mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of cerebral small vessel disease and vascular dementia. His methodological focus is in genetics, imaging and the conduction of investigator-initiated studies. He is the author of more than 160 original and review articles, the author of numerous book chapters and a member of several guideline committees. He has been principal investigator in a number of clinical trials including a multi-center trial in vascular dementia and has received a number of research awards. He is on the editorial board of the journals Stroke, Cerebrovascular Diseases and Frontiers in Stroke. He previously has served in the post of Chair of METASTROKE within the ISGC.

Dr. Matthew Edwardson, MD

Dr. Edwardson is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Rehab Medicine at Georgetown University.  He is a vascular neurologist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and conducts research focused on stroke recovery at Georgetown and the MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital. Dr. Edwardson leads the Biomarkers of Stroke Recovery Project at the Georgetown Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery.  He uses multi-omic methods, including epigenetics, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics and exosomics in blood plasma to identify molecules associated with motor recovery in stroke patients. The long-term goal of his research is to determine the molecular underpinnings of stroke recovery in humans and use this knowledge to develop recovery-based therapeutics.

Dr James E Faber, PhD

Dr Faber is Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the vascular biology of the collateral circulation in brain, heart and lower extremities, and its significance in mouse models of occlusive disease. Emphasis is on genetic and environmental factors that adversely affect the abundance of these vessels in healthy tissue and their growth in ischaemic disease. He is currently PI of several NIH funded projects and a multi-centre study recently begun in patients with acute ischaemic stroke - GENEtic Determinants of Collateral Status in Stroke (GENEDCSS). He has been appointed to various editorial boards, was associate editor of theAmerican Journal of Physiology, serves on review panels for NIH and pregramming committies for the NIH and American Heart Association, and currently serves on the editorial boards ofCirculation ResearchandAngiogenesis.

Dr Guido J. Falcone MD, ScD, MPH 

Dr. Guido J. Falcone is a Neurologist with subspecialty training in Neurocritical Care and Stroke, and an Epidemiologist with expertise in Population Genetics and Big Data. His research lies at the interphase of clinical neurology, neuroimaging, population and medical genetics, and Big Data. Dr. Falcone is interested in understanding how common and rare genetic variation influences the occurrence, severity, functional outcome, and recurrence of stroke, both hemorrhagic and ischemic. Genetic variants influencing these phenotypes can be used for numerous applications, including: (1) identification of novel biological mechanisms involved in causing stroke and determining its severity and outcome, (2) answering non-genetic epidemiological questions using gene mutations as instruments (in the statistical sense of the word), and (3) risk stratification of patients according to their genetic profile. Through the International Stroke Genetics Consortium, He works in close collaboration with numerous investigators interested in stroke genomics from around the world

Dr. Israel Fernández Cadenas

Dr. Israel Fernández Cadenas is a Biologist and Head of the Pharmacogenomics and Genetics Group of the IIB Sant Pau and Sant Pau Hospital. Dr. Fernández Cadenas is the co-Chair of the Acute endophenotypes working group of the ISGC and co-Chair of the Global Alliance of Acute and long term Outcome an initiative of the ISGC to study the genetics of stroke outcomes. He is the founder and coordinator of the Spanish Stroke Genetics Consortium (www.genestroke.com) and is the current Chair of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (2021-2023). Dr. Fernández Cadenas is interested in the genetics of stroke outcomes and the pharmacogenetics of rt-PA and oral anticoagulants. He is also interested in epigenetics and gut microbiome in relation to stroke risk and stroke outcome.

Dr Myriam Fornage, PhD

Dr Fornage holds a joint appointment in the Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas Health School of Public Health. Her research spans basic science investigation to broad scale human genomics to understand the genetic basis of stroke and cardiovascular disease using molecular genetics and statistical approaches in both animal models and humans. Current studies aim to identify genes and gene pathways contributing to susceptibility to brain vascular injury in the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) and to examine whether the corresponding human genes influence cardiovascular disease and stroke risk in population cohorts.

Dr Polina Golland, PhD

Dr Golland is an Associate Professor in the EECS Department and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Polina got her PhD from MIT and her Bachelor and Masters degree from Technion, Israel. She is an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. She has worked on various problems in computer vision, motion and stereo, shape modelling and representation, predictive modelling and visualisation of statistical models. Her primary research interest is in developing novel techniques for image analysis and understanding in the context of biomedical imaging. Her research group has demonstrated novel algorithms for image segmentation, population analysis and characterisation of functional organisation of the brain.

Dr Christoph Griessenauer, MD

Dr Christoph Griessenauer is an open vascular/endovascular neurosurgeon at Geisinger in Danville, PA. Dr. Griessenauer attended Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität in Austria, where he received his medical degree. He then spent a year at the Mayo Clinic to do research in functional neurosurgery. He completed his residency in neurosurgery at the University of Alabama, Birmingham and subsequently did a fellowship in open and endovascular neurosurgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, in Boston. Dr. Griessenauer is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. He has an interest in genetic aspects of cerebral aneurysms and subarachnoid hemorrhage as well as ischemic stroke, particularly in genetic determinants of cerebral collateral formation and implications in large vessel occlusion stroke and mechanical thrombectomy.

Dr Elizabeth G Holliday, PhD

Dr Holliday is a leading genetic analyst from Australia. She co-heads the ISGC analysis working group and has been recognised by the Stroke Society of Australasia (SSA) with the Young Investigators Award for her contribution to stroke genetics work conducted by the Australian Stroke Genetics Collaborative.

Professor Philip Oluleke Ibinaiye

IBINAIYE, Philip Oluleke is a Professor and Consultant Neurovascular Radiologist at Ahmadu Bello University and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria. He obtained his Medical Degree (MBBS) at College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 1995. He is a Fellow of National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria in Radiology (FMCR) and Fellow of International College of Surgeons in Radiology [FICS] (Chicago). He has been teaching and supervising undergraduate and post graduate students in the field of General Radiology and Neurovascular Radiology.

He is a member of several societies including International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC), Association of Radiologist of West Africa, Association of Radiologists in Nigeria among others.

 He was part of an ambitious team entitled SIREN Study where they developed a software that makes for smooth running, easy storage and retrieval of neuroimaging data titled AIM on Clear Canvas Enriched Stroke phenotyping Software (ACCESS) 2016 - PATENT NG/PT/NC/2016/2007. He authored/co-authored over 100 publications in reputable peer reviewed journals; over 60 meetings abstracts and 2 books.

He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Radiation Medicine in Tropics. He won many academic laurels including Titcombe College honor award for high academic attainment, Ethicon prize of West African College of Surgeons, Ahmadu Bello University MacArthur Post-Doctoral Grant Award among others.

He is a site Consultant Radiologist in ongoing Stroke Genetics research entitled “Systemic investigation of blacks with stroke using Genomics (SIBS Genomics)” in centers across Nigeria and Ghana. 

Dr Michael L 'Luke' James

Dr. Michael L. "Luke" James joined the faculty at Duke University after completing residencies in both neurology and anesthesiology as well as fellowships in vascular neurology, neuroanesthesia, and neurocritical care. As a physician-scientist in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Neurology at Duke, Luke manages a translational laboratory purposed with developing promising therapeutics to improve recovery for patients with intracerebral hemorrhage. With both clinical and preclinical research teams, he utilizes resources housed in both the Translational Acute Brain Injury Center (clinical) and Multidisciplinary Neuroprotection Laboratories (preclinical) to approach his specific research interests in the sexually dimorphic genomic responses to parenchymal brain hemorrhage.

Professor Christina Jern, MD, PhD

Christina Jern is a Professor of Neurology at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University and also serves as a senior consultant in Clinical Genetics at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. She is the Principal Investigator of the Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischaemic Stroke (SAHLSIS). Her research focuses on the importance of the hemostatic pathway for stroke occurrence and stroke outcome, and also includes molecular genetics studies. Her group is currently performing a long-term longitudinal study on ischaemic stroke, SAHLSIS Outcome, with a focus on stroke recurrence, cognition and neuroimaging. Additionally, Christina is the Chair of the steering committee of Stroke Centre West, a research centre whose main goal is to foster interdisciplinary and translational stroke research in Western Sweden, and she is a member of the Scientific Council for the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.

Dr Jordi Jiménez-Conde, MD, PhD

Dr Jordi Jiménez-Conde is a vascular neurologist of the Department of Neurology, head of Genetics in Neurovascular Research Group (NEUVAS) in the Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques, and Professor of Neurology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He focuses his research to cerebrovascular diseases, mainly to genetics and epigenetics of stroke, stroke recovery, aging and neuroimaging.

He graduated in medicine at University of Barcelona and specialized in neurology at Hospital Universitari del Mar. He completed his postdoctoral training in genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard and the Broad Institute, Boston. He was a member of Jonathan Rosand’s lab in 2008 and has been involved with the ISGC since then. He led the implementation of BASICMAR, the register and biobank of stroke patients from the area of Hospital del Mar (nowadays >6000 strokes included), and co-founded and co-leads the Spanish Stroke Genetics Consortium (GeneStroke) where has served as PI of several grants about genetics and epigenetics of stroke.

Dr Keith Keene, PhD

Dr Keene received his PhD in molecular medicine from Wake Forest University in 2007 and his BS degree in biology from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 2003. He has funding through the NHRI and has an American Heart Association National Center NCRP Scientific Development grant focused on DNA methylation in stroke. His other research interests include the study of diabetes and health disparities. He has just begun a pilot study investigating aneurysmal SAH at the molecular level.

Dr Steven J Kittner, MD, MPH

Dr. Steven Kittner is a vascular neurologist and epidemiologist with expertise in clinical and research aspects of ischemic stroke in young adults. He is Professor and Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Neurology with a joint appointment in the Epidemiology and Public Health, both at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Baltimore City Hospitals. Following research training in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and at the Clinical and Genetic Epidemiology Branch of National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, he completed training in Neurology at the University of Maryland Hospital in Neurology. He established the Baltimore-Washington Young Stroke Study to investigate novel risk factors for early-onset ischemic stroke and, more recently, has concentrated on genetic risk factors for ischemic stroke. He is a founding member of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium and was the Principal Investigator of the NINDS Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN) study. He is currently coordinating an international consortium to study the genetics of ischemic stroke in young adults. 

Dr Sander W. van der Laan, PhD

Dr Sander W. van der Laan is a junior postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology within the Circulatory Health Program at the University Medical Center Utrecht and University of Utrecht. His research interest is in the genetic and epigenetic causes of carotid and coronary atherosclerosis underlying ischemic stroke (IS) and coronary artery disease (CAD).

He is currently working on integrating Bayesian fine-mapping methodology, expression and methylation quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses in circulating cells and atherosclerotic tissues, and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of plaque and serum biomarkers as well as plaque characteristics based on high-through imaging of histological slides. As means of integrating these biological layers he applies Mendelian Randomisation methods to infer causal genes, proteins, networks and biomarkers underlying IS and CAD.

He actively contributes to the International Stroke Genetics Consortium. In addition, he makes contributions to international consortia, including GENIUS-CHD, GIANT, GLGC, GoDMC, 1Million Hearts, and various others.

Uxue Lazcano (PhD candidate)

Uxue graduated in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in July 2017 from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). During her studies she discovered the world of bioinformatics and was fascinated by it, which is why she decided to study a MSc in Bioinformatics at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB). 

When she finished the master she met Dr.Jimenez and she joined his team of Neurovascular research as a bioinformatics technician. During her first year as a researcher she developed several clinical-genetic models using data from ischemic stroke patients and machine learning techniques. At the same time she studied a postgraduate course in Data Science at the mathematics faculty of the University of Barcelona.

After an intense year full of new experiences, she had the opportunity to start her thesis in this same group under the direction of Dr. Jimenez in collaboration with Dr. Gonzalez from ISGlobal, who as a statistician gives the technical support to be able to develop a thesis that mixes the most clinical part with a more technical vision to be able to carry out a complete PhD.

Dr Jin-Moo Lee, MD, PhD

Dr Lee's research focuses on mechanistic understanding of degenerative diseases and stroke. He has participated in numerous clinical trials for the treatment and neuroimaging of acute ischaemic stroke patients. Dr Lee is a recipient of the Zaritsky Research Award and the Arthur K Asbury Resident Award for clinical Excellence. In addition, he was awarded the Clinical Teacher of the Year Award by the Washington University Medical Students, and the Sven Eliasson Award for Teaching Excellence by he Neurology Residents in 2000.

Dr Tsong-Hai Lee, MD, PhD

Dr. Tsong-Hai Lee is a professor of Neurology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou Medical Center in Taiwan. He has been the president of Taiwan Stroke Society from 2012 to 2014 and the chairman of Asia-Pacific Stroke Conference in Taipei in 2014. He is now the honorable director of Taiwan Stroke Society and the distinguished member of Japanese Society of Neurology since September 2017. He is the principal investigator of Stroke Registry In Chang-gung Healthcare System (SRICHS). His clinical and research work is focused on stroke such as stroke risk factors, stroke genetics and stroke outcome in both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke.

Professor Chris Levi, MD

Chris is a Chief Investigator and co-ordinator of the Australian Stroke Genetics Collaborative. He is senior Staff Specialist Neurologist, Director of Acute Stroke Services, John Hunter Hospital; Conjoint Assoc Professor of Medicine, University of Newcastle and Director of the Hunter Medical Research Institute/University of Newcastle Priority Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research. He established the Stroke Research Program in Newcastle in 1999 and in addition to his work in stroke genetics is working in the fields of stroke prevention, acute stroke neurovascular imaging, therapeutic hypothermia and tPA implementation. He has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles and has extensive experience in the design, conduct and management of large scale observational studies and clinical trials. His overarching research vision is the translation of experimental stroke therapies into the clinical domain and the implementation of effective stroke therapies.

Professor Arne Lindgren, MD, PhD

Arne Lindgren is Professor of Neurology at Lund University, and consultant Neurologist at Skane University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. Both clinical and research work is focused on stroke. He is Principal Investigator of the Lund Stroke Register that has included over 5000 stroke patients and control subjects since its start in 2001. His main interest in the field of stroke research is stroke risk factors including genetic causes of stroke and prognosis and outcome after stroke, both ischaemic and haemorrhagic. The work includes collaboration in national and international projects on stroke. Translational research regarding new aspects of stroke causes, outcome and treatments is also a main area of interest.

Dr Steven Lubitz, MD, MPH

Dr Lubitz's research focuses on clinical and genetic aspects of heritable cardiac arrhythmias. He is interested in studying the mechanisms of heritable arrhythmias and determining how genetic information can be used to guide care. Dr Lubitz' research spans disciplines including epidemiology, risk prediction, population genetics, pharmacogenetics and clinical trials to identify the role of using genetic information in clinical practice.

Dr Jane Maguire, PhD, BN (Hons), BA, RN

Jane Maguire is an Associate Professor and project manager of the Australian Stroke Genetics Collaboration. She holds a substantive tenured academic appointment at the University of Newcastle. She is an active member of the University of Newcastle's Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health. Jane's doctoral research focused on the genetics of stroke occurrence and outcome in candidate genes and her current post-doctoral interests include genome wide association studies of the genetics of post stroke functional outcome and the pharmacogenomics of t-PA induced haemorrhagic transformation. Jane has extensive experience in the design, conduct and management of large scale observational genetic studies and meta-analysis of genetic association studies. She has published over 20 peer reviewed journal articles and has a particular interest in translating research into the clinical setting. Jane has been on investigator with several research groups that have been successful in securing competitive (National) funding grants.

Dr Shraddha Mainali, MD

Dr Mainali is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Ohio State University. Her clinical sub-specialization includes Stroke and Neurocritical care. Although Dr Mainali is actively involved in multiple clinical trials related to stroke and traumatic brain injury, her translational research is primarily related to ischemic stroke. Dr Mainali is particularly interested in the study of large vessel occlusion strokes with special focus on the molecular mechanisms of cerebral collateral circulation. 

Dr Jennifer Majersik, MD

Dr Majersik is a stroke neurologist at the University of Utah. She trained in neurology at the University of Utah and did he vascular fellowship at the University of Michigan. She is currently using the resources of the deep pedigree resources in Utah to find families at high risk for both ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke. Further studies will focus on both phenotyping and genotyping these families.

Dr Rainer Malik, PhD

Dr Malik is an active member of the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research in Munich. He co-leads the Analysis Working Group of the ISGC and plays a lead role in the METASTROKE project analysis.

Dr Michelangelo Mancuso, MD, PhD

Dr Mancuso has 15 years experience of neurology and of treating patients with neurological diseases. He is the Chief of the Cerebrovascular in- and out-patient service at the Neurological Institute of the University of Pisa. He is also the physician expertise of the Laboratory of CSF and molecular analysis, and the head of the Centre of Neurogenetics and expertise for mitochondrial diseases and rare diseases at the same institute. The scientific and research activity of Dr Mancuso has mainly been conducted in hte field of mitochondrial and neurogenetic diseases, including the genetics of stroke. This work has led to more that 150 publications in peer reviewed journals to date.

Professor Teri Manolio, MD, PhD

Dr Manolio previously worked at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute where she was heavily involved in large-scale cohort studies such as the Cardiovascular Health Study and the Framingham Heart Study. She joined NHGRI in 2005 to lead efforts in applying genomic technologies to population research, including the Genes and Environment Initiative (GEI), the Electronic Medical Records and Genetics (eMERGE) Network, and the NHGRI Genomewide Association Catalog. She received her MD from the University of Maryland and her PhD in human genetics and genetic epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. Dr Manolio is on the faculty of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences as Professor of Medicine. She is the author of over 200 original research papers and has research interests in genomewide association studies of complex diseases and ethnic differences in disease risk.

Professor Hugh Markus, FRCP

Hugh Markus is Professor of Stroke Medicine and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the University of Cambridge. He qualified in medicine from Cambridge and Oxford Universities and trained in Oxford, Nottingham and London before being appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Neurology at Kings College School of Medicine and Dentistry and Kings College Hospital in 1994. In 2000 he moved to St George's University of London as Professor of Neurology.

His research interests include the genetic basis of stroke and cerebral small vessel disease. He runs a national referral service for CADASIL and other monogenic forms of stroke. He is involved in a number of international collaborative projects trying to identify genetic risk factors for different types of stroke and was principal investigator on the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 Ischaemic Stroke study.

Dr Juan Jose Martin

Dr Martin is a Clinical Neurologist and coordinator of the Stroke Unit at Sanatario Allende. He was awarded a DDAD's grant for research in Neurogenetics at the University of Heidelberg University in 2003. Since then he has been actively participating in the field of cerebrovascular genetics in collaboration with colleagues from different countries. He is a member of the Neurological Society of Argentina, Vice-President of the Neurological Society of Cordoba and Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Catholic University of Cordoba. He is now developing a Biobank in collaboration with the National University of Cordoba.

Professor James Meschia, MD

Dr Meschia is a vascular neurologist and the Principal Investigator of the 70 centre Siblings with Ischaemic Stroke Study (SWISS) and was Principal Investigator of the five-center Ischaemic Stroke Genetics Study. He is co-PI of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) funded Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN), as well as co-chair of the phenotype committee. He is a founding member of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC) and serves as a Section Editor for genetics for the journal Stroke, and is Neurology Section Editor for Mayo Clinical Proceedings.

Dr Braxton D. Mitchell, MPH, PhD

Dr. Mitchell is Professor of Medicine and of Epidemiology & Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  He is a genetic epidemiologist whose interests span a variety of common complex diseases and traits, where his research focuses on understanding the genetic and environmental contributions to common age-related complex diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.  He has worked extensively with the University of Maryland team on the genetics of stroke in young adults, and he has led the analysis committee for the Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN). 

Dr Paul Nyquist, MD, MPH

Dr Nyquist received his medical degree masters of public health degree from the George Washington University and completed his internal medicine internship at the National Naval Medical Center. His research bridges the gap between clinical trials and bench top innovations. He has embraced a research strategy characterized by two features. The first is an ongoing interest in any translational research projects that incorporate well founded biological models into patient care in brain injury. He has a theoretical focus which emphasizes the role of inflammation in cerebrovascular disease with particular attention to the effects of inflammation on endothelial activation. His goal is to develop acute interventions that will improve outcome in patients with acute brain injury of any type.

Dr Jamary Oliveira MD, MS, PhD

Dr Oliveira graduated in Medicine from the Federal University of Bahia, undertook a residency in Neurology at the University of Sao Paulo, a fellowship in Stroke and Neurocritical Care and Massachusetts General Hospital, a PhD in Medicine from the University of Sao Paulo and a Masters in Science (Epidemiology concentration) at the Harvard School of Public Health. Currently he is Associate Professor at the Federal University of Bahia and advisor at the Post-Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Federal University of Bahia Medical School. His research interests include stroke, Chagas disease, serum and neuroimaging biomarkers.

Professor Mayowa Ojo Owolabi, MBBS, MSc, Dr.M, FMCP, FAAN, FANA, FRCP, FAS

Prof. Owolabi is a Professor of Neurology and pioneer Director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine; Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan; a Fellow of the Academy of Science (Nigeria), Fellow American Academy of Neurology and Fellow Royal College of Physicians (London). He is a recognized global leader in science covering neurology, cardiovascular diseases, neuro-rehabilitation, and community-based genomic epidemiology of stroke in Africa; with over 225 publications in peer-reviewed journals and several inventions including a stroke phenotyping software with patent. He is Associate Editor of BMC Neurology and on the editorial board of many high impact journals. Prof. Owolabi is the leader of several collaborative stroke studies including the Stroke Investigative Research & Educational Network (SIREN) as Overall PI & Systematic Investigation of Blacks with Stroke using Genomics (SIBS Genomics) studies which have resulted in landmark publications including the discovery of the association between Apolipoprotein-1 and lacunar stroke.  He is leading the first GWAS of stroke in indigenous Africans. He is pioneer Chair of the largest study of cardiovascular diseases in Africa (H3Africa-CVD working group with >55,000 subjects). Prof Owolabi occupies strategic national and international positions including the pioneer Regional Vice-President, World Federation of Neurorehabilitation (Africa); Co-Chair, Joint Publication Committee-Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases; a permanent Member, Expert Review Group, Wellcome Trust, UK; founder of COUNCIL (Control Unique to CVDs in LMIC) initiative; member global burden of diseases (GBD) group; Lead Co-Chair, World Stroke Organization- Lancet Neurology Commission on stroke in developing countries and Regional Office Director ,World Hypertension League (Sub-Saharan Africa) among others.

Dr Guillaume Pare, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Dr Pare focuses on genetic and molecular epidemiology to identify genetic determinants of complex disease such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease and other types of chronic disease. Genetic and molecular markers of disease are expected to lead to better understanding, prediction and ultimately prevention of diseases. He is currently the PI of the international effort Interstroke, the genetics of lipoprotein (a), pharmacogenomics of antithrombotic drugs and development of novel genetic methods.

Professor Stephen S Rich, PhD

Dr Rich's research is centered on understanding the genetic epidemiology of complex human disease, including the genes contributing to atherosclerosis, stroke and intermediate phenotypes (risk factors). These studies range from estimating the familial aggregation of disease and subclinical markers of disease within families, to gene mapping, gene discovery and functional significance of gene variants. In the realm of atherosclerosis and risk factors, the primary study population is the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a collection of ~6,000 adults (aged 45+) without evidence of clinical disease. These subjects have extensive imaging, biomarker and clinical longitudinal data, as well as DNA for genetic studies.

A primary goal of Dr Rich's research efforts is to identify novel genes and pathways that can serve as predictors of risk, identify those at highest risk of disease and therefore are amenable to intervention, and to develop models of disease through manipulation of of these genes and thus identify potential therapeutic targets.

Professor Gabriel Rinkel

Dr Rinkel is Professor of Neurology and medical chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the University Medical Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands. He has published more than 350 papers of subarachnoid haemorrhage and intracranial aneurysms in international peer reviewed journals and has given invited lectures on these topics at more than 30 universities in 4 continents, and at international conferences such as the World Congress of Neurology, the European Neurological Society, the World Stroke Congress, the International Stroke Congress and the European Stroke Congress.

Professor Jaume Roquer MD, PhD

Dr Roquer is the Chairman of the Neurological Department of the University Hospital del Mar, Parc de Salut Mar in Barcelona, and professor of Neurology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He has an interest primarily in epidemiology, vascular risk factors, prognosis and genetics of cerebrovascular diseases.  He created in 2005, the BASICMAR database, a prospective ongoing clinical/biological register of patients with acute stroke at University Hospital del Mar. He is the PI of the NEUVAS group (IMIM-Hospital del Mar, Red Investigation Cardiovascular (RIC). RD06/0009/0020. Instituto Carlos III) involved in clinical and genetic stroke research.

Dr Jonathan Rosand, MD

Jonathan Rosand is Professor of Neurology at Harvard, appointed to the J.P. Kistler Endowed Chair in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He established the ISGC in 2007, convening the founding members at the Broad on the eve of the publication of the first large-scale genome-wide association studies for a complex disease (diabetes) in Science. He then served as chair of the ISGC from 2007 through 2010 and the inaugural chair of the ISGC steering committee when it was formally created in 2011. His laboratory continues to support the ISGC convener. In addition to being senior author of the ISGC’s first GWAS of hemorrhagic stroke as well as the landmark NINDS-SiGN GWAS of ischemic stroke, Jonathan launched the ISGC’s Cerebrovascular Disease Knowledge Portal. His research group at the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine and the Broad Institute has served as a training ground for many investigators who have gone on to develop internationally distinguished research programs of their own, including ISGC members Natalia Rost, Jordi Jimenez-Conde, Christopher Anderson, Alessandro Biffi, Guido Falcone, and Chia-Ling Phuah.

Dr Owen A. Ross, PhD

Owen A. Ross, PhD is a native of Ireland, who as a Research Fellow, moved to the Mayo Clinic Florida in 2005. Dr. Ross is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience and his laboratory is focused on identifying genetic determinants of disease risk. He has co-authored of over 200 publications on the subject of ageing and age-related disease, including movement disorders, dementia, stroke and related disorders. Along with Dr. James Meschia and his colleagues in the Department of Neurology, Dr. Ross has recently started the Mayo Clinic Florida Familial Cerebrovascular Registry for on-site collection of patients and family expansion for gene discovery studies. To date this initiative has collected DNA and plasma on over 500 patients with a myriad of cerebrovascular disorders. The identification of novel genes for stroke will not only provide a clinical diagnostic tool but also generates molecular biological tools, the development of relevant in vitro and in vivo model systems and directs targeted therapeutic development.

Dr Natalie Rost, MD

Dr Natalia Rost is a clinician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard and the Broad Institute. A recipient of research fellowships from the National Stroke Association and the American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation, Dr Rost joined the MGH faculty after completing her post-doctoral training in the Rosand lab. She was appointed Associate Director of the Acute Stroke Service at MGH in 2008. Natalia's research interests are in the genetics and neuroimaging of stroke and outcome prediction. She has been involved with the ISGC since its inception and is Principal Investigator of the ISGC's 'Genome Wide Association Study of White Matter Hyperintensity in Patients with Acute Ischaemic Stroke' study.

Dr Michele Sale, PhD

Dr Sale aimed to identify and characterize genetic contributors to complex disease susceptibility. She was the co-PI of GARNET (the Genomics and Randomized Trials Network) grant which used participants from the Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention (VISP) trial to identify genetic variants associated with recurrent ischaemic stroke and combined vascular endpoints, gained insights into individual responses to vitamin B therapy, and developed predictive models of recurrent stroke, incorporating clinical and genetic information. She also used a genome-wide association study approach to identify and characterized genetic variants that contribute to type 2 diabetes susceptibility in African American Sea Islanders of coastal South Carolina and Georgia and identified variants contributing to lipoprotein subclasses - predictors of cardiovascular outcomes - measured using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). She was a collaborator with the REGARDS and MESA studies. She was an associate editor for Frontiers in Applied Genetic Epidemiology.

Prof Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, PhD

Rustam Al-Shahi Salman is a professor of clinical neurology at the University of Edinburgh and an honorary consultant neurologist in NHS Lothian. He became interested in neurology during medical training in Cambridge and was inspired to work on common neurological problems by Charles Warlow and the stroke research group in Edinburgh, which he joined in 1998 as an MRC clinical training fellow, progressing to MRC patient-oriented clinician scientist and senior clinical fellowships until 2016. Rustam’s clinical and research interests focus on the frequency, prognosis, treatment, and pathophysiology of intracranial haemorrhage, using research methods such as randomised controlled trials, community- or population-based cohort and case-control studies, brain banking, and meta-analysis. His clinical work includes acute TIA/stroke/thrombolysis services, acute neurology services including a rapid access neurology clinic for his local emergency department, and specialist outpatient clinics. Rustam was one of the lead authors of The Lancet’s 2014 Series on Increasing Value and Reducing Waste in Research and a founding member of the REWARD Alliance. He has received funding from the MRC, British Heart Foundation, Stroke Association, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government, and GE Healthcare. Rustam welcomes contact from junior doctors interested in pursuing independently-funded clinical research fellowships to answer important questions about stroke due to any form of intracranial haemorrhage. You can follow Rustam on Twitter at @BleedingStroke.

Prof Dharambir Sanghera, PhD, FAHA 

Dr. Sanghera is a Genetic Epidemiologist at the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her research specializes in the study of molecular and genetic-epidemiological aspects of common complex diseases, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. She is PI of the Asian Indian Diabetic Heart Study and the Sikh Diabetes Study (AIDHS/SDS). She is also Co-PI of Metabolome in Ischemic Stroke Study (MISS) available with longitudinal data from Oklahoma. Using expertise in wide range of molecular and statistical genetics concepts, long-term objectives of Dr. Sanghera’s laboratory are: 1) to identify novel endophenotypes/ biomarkers that can be early predictors of disease pathogenesis; 2) to improve the classification of the disease process by identifying genome-wide patterns associated with ethnic variation and disease disparity; and, 3) to discover new therapeutic targets which can inform the design of early prevention and treatment therapy among disparate populations.

Professor Sudha Seshadri, MD

Sudha Seshadri is a Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine and a Senior Investigator at the Framingham Heart Study where she directs the Neurology and Neurogenetics cores. As a board certified neurologist she provides clinical care and teaches residents and medical students and as a researcher her interests cover the epidemiology and genetics of stroke, vascular cognitive impairment, Alzheimers disease and brain aging. She serves as primary mentor to several post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty members. She leads the Neurology phenotype working group within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genetic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium. In 2014 she also began serving as vice-chair of METASTROKE.

Dr Pankaj Sharma, MD

Dr Sharma's main interest is in identifying genes for stroke (including in ethnic minority populations). He established a large and highly characterized stroke biobank among those of European and South Asian descent known as BRIANS (the Bio-Repository of DNA in stroke). The diversity of ethnic populations in BRAINS allows comparison of genetic risk factors between those of differing ancestral descent as well as those who migrate into different environments. He co-directs the BEAST project focused on genetics of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

Dr. Alexey Shatunov, PhD

Dr. Alexey Shatunov received his PhD in Biology from the Russian Academy of Science. His study focused on the role of autoimmune components in the development of neurodegenerative disorders, with a particular focus on viliuysky encephalomyelitis and spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, which spread in Siberia.

In 2001 he was granted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Clinical Neurogenetics Laboratory at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS/NIH, USA), where he conducted studies on movement and neuromuscular disorders including essential tremor, myofibrillar myopathies, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, spinocerebellar ataxias and gained extensive experience in techniques of molecular biology and genetics of mendelian and complex diseases.

From 2008 to 2023 he worked at the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience at King’s College London. His interest was in understanding the contribution of genetic polymorphisms to development and progression of motor neuron disease (MND). The most important project he was involved led to the discovery one of the frequent MND gene, C9ORF72.

In collaboration with colleagues from the University of Cambridge and CIMR, he worked on whole-exome sequencing data of patients with a rare lysosomal disease, and this work led to the discovery of a new disease, mucopolysaccharidosis-plus syndrome, caused by a mutation in VPS33A.

His research interest focuses on understanding the role of genetic variations in complex and rare traits related to neurological conditions and applying novel methods and related bioinformatic and statistical tools.

Dr. Sanjula Dhillon Singh, MD PhD MSc

Sanjula Dhillon Singh, MD PhD MSc (Oxon) is a physician-scientists and epidemiologist trained at the University of Oxford. Sanjula has joined the faculty of the McCance Center and Harvard Medical School and will oversee the McCance Center’s science and implementation of enhanced brain care into primary care worldwide (e.g., motivational novel tools to stimulate behavioral changes leading to risk factor reduction for dementia, stroke and depression), with a focus on health equity, by investigating historically underrepresented communities globally.

Professor Agnieszka Slowik, MD, PhD

Dr Slowik is the Head of the Institute of Neurogenetics at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. She collaborates broadly with the stroke genetics community in conducting research in the neurogenetics of cerebral stroke and degenerative diseases. Her other research interests include ALS and Alzheimer's disease.

Dr Andrew M Southerland, MD, MSc, FAHA

Dr. Southerland is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia.  He completed Neurology Residency and Vascular Neurology fellowship at the University of Virginia, where he also obtained a Master of Science in Clinical Research.  He is the past recipient of an early career award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association National Clinical Research Program to study gene expression in incident cervical artery dissection.  His clinical and research efforts focus on cervical artery dissection and fibromuscular dysplasia, and he is an active member of the CADISP-Plus Consortium and US FMD Registry.

Dr Cathie Sudlow, DPhil, FRCP

Dr Cathie Sudlow is Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She trained in medicine in the UK at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, qualifying in 1991. She became interested in neurology, stroke medicine and epidemiology as a medical senior house officer in Edinburgh in the early 1990's. She chose to specialise clinically in neurology, developing further her particular interest in stroke, and over the years has held clinical neurology posts in the UK in Edinburgh, Oxford and Plymouth. In 1997 she completed an MSc in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and then spent three years at the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, University of Oxford, completing her DPhil 'Antiplatelet drugs and vascular disease'. In 2001 she returned to Edinburgh as a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist in the Division of Clinical Neurosciences where she has set up a number of stroke related research projects, including the Edinburgh Stroke Study, a hospital based cohort study of >2000 patients with stroke or TIA, including a DNA collection.

She has particular expertise in epidemiological methods, in particular systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Her research interests and projects are in stroke epidemiology, stroke genetics, stroke prevention and systematic reviews of randomised trials and of observational studies.

Dr Courtney Takahashi, MD

Dr Courtney Takahashi is a full-time neurointensivist at Boston University. She received her medical degree from the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. Dr Takahashi completed her residency training at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. Her leadership positions within Neurocritical Care include Associate Division Chief for Neurocritical Care and Neurocritical Care Fellowship Director. Apart from the ICU, She is the Inpatient Medical Director for Neurology and the Outpatient Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic Director.

Dr Takahashi research interests include perihematomal edema in spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage, nursing education, and hospital quality improvement. She is particularly vested in finding ways to calculate perihematomal edema volumes.

Professor Wai Kwong Tang, MBChB, MD

Professor Wai Kwong Tang was appointed to professor in the Department of Psychiatry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011. His main research areas are Addictions and Neuropsychiatry in Stroke. Professor Tang has published over 100 papers in renowned journals, and has also contributed to the peer review of 40 journals. He has secured over 20 major competitive research grants. He has served the editorial boards of more than 100 scientific journals. He was also a recipient of the Young Researcher Award in 2007, awarded by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In terms of neuropsychiatry in stroke, he has demonstrated the impact of cerebral microbleeds on the risk, severity and outcome of post stroke depression. Our findings have subsequently been replicated by other researchers. He became the member of the editorial boards of many journals in the field, including the Cerebrovascular Diseases. In a landmark study of the impact of cerebral microbleeds on post stroke depression, published in Stroke, he showed that cerebral microbleeds not only increased the risk of post stroke depression, but also impacted on the course of post stroke depression. He also examined the brain imaging biomarkers of various neuropsychiatric disorders in stroke survivors, such as anxiety, dementia, fatigue, apathy and suicide.

Dr Amytis Towfighi, MD

Dr Towfighi's research has focused on epidemiologic studies of sex, race/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in stroke incidence, care, and outcomes and conducting randomized trials aimed at redressing disparities. She has tested strategies for addressing inequities in the Los Angeles County – Department of Health Services (LAC-DHS) public safety-net system, the second largest public healthcare system in the United States. Dr Towfighi is familiar with developing and testing complex interventions in LAC-DHS, as well as designing and implementing coordinated programs in LAC-DHS. In recent years, She conducted three randomized trials of secondary stroke prevention interventions LAC-DHS. She oversaw the site which enrolled the majority of patients in the SUSTAIN (Systematic Use of STroke Averting Interventions) trial, which tested a chronic-care model-based intervention for blood pressure control after stroke (American Heart Association [AHA] Spina Outcomes Center). Dr Towfighi was the PI of the HEALS (Healthy Eating And Lifestyle after Stroke) trial, which pilot tested the impact of a 6-session occupational therapist-led intervention aimed at changing diet and physical activity after stroke (AHA 11SDG7590160). She was MPI of SUCCEED (Secondary stroke prevention by Uniting Community and Chronic care model teams Early to End Disparities), a trial that tested the impact of a multimodal, multilevel complex care manager/community health worker team intervention on improving risk factor control after stroke (1U54NS081764-01).

Dr Li Wei, MD, PhD

Li Wei is a chief physician of neurology at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, the director of Monogenic Disease Research & Precision Medicine Research Center for Neurological Disorders, and an associate professor at Capital Medicine University in Beijing of China. His research focuses on the molecular genetics studies of stroke, both monogenetic stroke and complex stroke. He is also interested in pharmacogenomics about stroke. He studied as visiting scholar at DDC clinic and Case Western Reserve University in USA from 2010 to 2011. Additionally, Wei is a member of Neurology Genetic group of Chinese Medical Association, a member of Neuro-genetic Committee of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and a member of Genetic Committee of Chinese stroke Stroke Association.

Dr Loo Keat Wei, BSc, PhD

Keat Wei graduated from the UTM with first class honours and subsequently received her PhD from the USM, specialising in genetics and epigenetics. As an Australian Endeavour Award holder, she has personally developed multi-disciplinary collaborations wih researchers in Australia and the UK. She has a strong interest in medical genetics, epigenetics and systems biology of stroke; but also works on translational research in other diseases including diabetes and hypertension. She has initiated a Cochrane Review team to investigate the efficacy of tissue plasminogen activators between ischaemic stroke subtypes.

Dr David Werring, PhD, FRCP, ESO

David Werring is a Reader in Clinical Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), University College Hospitals (UCH) NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Werring is leading a research programme into stroke, with a particular interest in small vessel disease, especially intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. He is Chief Investigator for two large UK-wide stidues: CROMIS-2 (Clinical Relevance of Microbleeds in Stroke) study (www.ucl.ac.uk/cromis-2) and the Genetic and Observational Study in Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (GOSH). Both of these studies include large, well-phenotyped cohorts for genetic analyses. He is also investigating new imaging biomarkers and treatments for cerebral amyloid angiopathy. He is Stroke specialty clinical lead for the NIHR North Thames Clinical Research Network. He is a member of the faculty of the European Stroke Organisation Conference and the scientific committee of the International Stroke Conference. He has an interest in the genetics of various types of intracranial bleeding including intracerebral haemorrgage (including those related to anticoagulants) and subarachnoid haemorrhage.

Dr Stacey Quintero Wolfe, MD, FAANS

Dr. Stacey Quintero Wolfe, MD, FAANS, is Associate Professor, Residency Program Director, and Director of Neurointerventional Surgery at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Dr. Wolfe graduated from the six-year combined BA/MD program at the University of Missouri in Kansas City and completed neurosurgical residency at the University of Miami, followed by a Cerebrovascular/Skull Base and an Endovascular fellowship. She served as a Commander in the United States Navy as Chief of Neurosurgery at Tripler Army Medical Center before joining Wake Forest in 2013.
Dr. Wolfe specializes in cerebrovascular disease and performs clinical research in open and endovascular treatments for ischemic and hemorrhagic neurovascular pathology; including aneurysms, AVMs, dural fistulae, moya moya disease, cavernomas, carotid disease, and ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. She is the institutional PI for 5 national clinical trials and 4 HDE Device registries, including MISTIE III for which she received commendation as a top 10 enroller. She has authored over 75 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in the fields of Cerebrovascular Surgery, Neurotrauma and Cellular transplantation.  She serves as an editorial reviewer for the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, World Neurosurgery and the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery. 
Dr. Wolfe is committed to education, mentorship and is recognized for her leadership, having served as the Chair of the AANS/CNS Section on Women in Neurosurgery, Chair of the AANS Young Neurosurgeons Committee, Chair of the CSNS AANS Caucus, and on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgery and the AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section.  She has served on the AANS Board of Directors, the Washington Committee, the Society of Neurological Surgeons, and has most recently been recognized as an ABNS Scholar.  Additionally, she has been recognized for her humanitarian work in Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua with the Young Neurosurgeons Public Service Citation.

Professor Daniel Woo, MD, MS

Dr Woo's research has focused on genetic and environmental contributors to intracerebral hemorrhage risk. He currently is the PI of both the Genetics and Environmental Risk Factors of Hemorrhagic Stroke (GERFHS) and the Ethnic/Racial Variations with Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ERICH) trials funded by the NINDS. He has a specific interest in shared risk for deep cerebral phenotypes including ICH, lacunar infarction, and white matter disease.

Dr Bradford B Worrall, MD, MSc

Bradford B Worrall, MD, MSc is a Professor and Vice-Chair for Clinical Research of Neurology and Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia and director of the Vascular Neurology Fellowship there. He has been active in numerous stoke genetics trials over the past decade including the Ischaemic Stroke Genetics Study (ISGS), the Siblings with Ischaemic Stroke Study (SWISS), the Genetics of Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Anticoagulation (GOCHA) study, the Familial Intracranial Aneurysm (FIA) study, and Ethnic/Racial Variations of Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ERICH). He co-PI'd a U-01 funded GWAS of treatement response grant with Michele Sale using the Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention (VISP) trial. The overall project is known as the Genome-wide Association Research Network into Effects of Treatment (GARNET) and includes a wide range of randomised clinical trials in many disease types. He co-PId the NINDS Stroke Genetics Network (SiGN) study funded by the NIH/NINDS. He co-chaired the phenotype harmonization committees for both of these grants. He chaired the Incidental Findings and Return of Results Committee for GARNET. He currently has a grant investigating reciprocal screening for aneurysmal disease and creation of a biobank (the Brain and Aortic Aneurysm Screening (BAAS) study). He is a founding member of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium and runs a translational stroke genetics laboratory at the University of Virginia. He serves as chair of the METASTROKE consortium within the ISGC.

Dr Ramin Zand, MD

Dr. Zand is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology at the Geisinger Health System and University of Tennessee, United States. He was trained in epidemiology, neurology/vascular neurology, and neuroimaging.  His research focuses on the application of machine learning in stroke diagnosis and risk prediction as well as imaging and genetic biomarkers of stroke and small vessel disease.