As a strong believer in the transformational power of digitalisation, Max Kaufmann investigates molecular disease mechanisms of multiple sclerosis using a high-throughput, data-driven approach. By treating patients as a physician and observing the current limitations of available medicines first-hand, he draws great motivation to extend beyond these boundaries with his research. Dr. Kaufmann lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.

BJC Investigator
Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology
Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery

Dr. Jonathan (Jony) Kipnis’s research group focuses on the complex interactions between the immune system and the central nervous system (CNS). The goal is to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying these interactions in neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental,
and mental disorders as well as in physiology (including healthy aging).

Kipnis’s research team showed that the brain function is dependent, in part, on the function and integrity of the immune system and that immune molecules (cytokines) can play neuromodulatory roles. The fascination with immunity and its role in neurophysiology is what brought the team to
a breakthrough discovery of meningeal lymphatic vessels that drain the CNS into the peripheral lymph nodes and thus serve as a physical connection between the brain and the immune system.
This finding challenged the prevailing dogma of CNS being an “immune privileged organ” and opened new avenues to mechanistically study the nature of neuroimmune interactions under physiological and pathological conditions. The implications of this work are broad and range from
Autism to Alzheimer’s disease through neuroinflammatory conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis.

Dr. Kipnis graduated from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he was a Sir Charles Clore scholar and a recipient of distinguished prize for scientific achievements awarded by the Israeli Parliament, The Knesset. In 2018 he received a prestigious NIH Director’s Pioneer award
to explore in more depth neuro-immune interactions in healthy and diseased brain.

Dr. Kipnis joined UVA faculty in 2007 and subsequently became a chair of
Neuroscience department there. As of July 1st, 2020 his lab has relocated to Washington University in St. Louis.

Tobias Lanz is a principal investigator at the VA Palo Alto Research Foundation and an academic research scientist at Stanford University. He studied medicine at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany and at the University College of London, UK, and wrote his medical doctoral thesis at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research in Tübingen, Germany. From 2010-2015, he worked as a physician scientist at the department of neurology at the University Hospital Heidelberg and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, focusing on T cell immunology in mouse models of neuroinflammation. He joined Stanford in 2015 to study the B cell repertoire in MS patients and to explore viral and microbial triggers of autoimmunity. He recently identified the glial cellular adhesion molecule GlialCAM as a molecular mimic of EBV EBNA1 and as a pathogenic autoantigen in MS.

Edmond and Lily Safra Chair and Head of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Sciences, Imperial College, London

Paul Matthews, OBE, MD, DPhil, FRCP, FMedSci is Head of the Division of Brain Sciences in the Department of Medicine of Imperial College, London. He has recently been named as Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial.  

His early research addressed innovative translational applications of clinical imaging for the neurosciences.  This has developed with exploitation of the powerful synergies between the physical and quantitative sciences and medicine.  His was the founding Director of two internationally leading research imaging centres, the University of Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) and, later, of GlaxoSmithKline’s Clinical Imaging Centre (now a public “spin out” as Imanova, Ltd). From 2005 - 2014 he was a Vice President  GlaxoSmithKline Medicines Discovery and Development.  With this experience, he became one of the small number of senior clinical academics in the UK with industry experience.

He has continued his interests in imaging in several ways, including as Chair of the Imaging Working Group for UK Biobank, which is pioneering an ambitious programme for very large population imaging as part of the UK Biiobank (Prof Sir Rory Collins, CEO). MRI scanning of the brain, heart and body, along with DEXA and 3D carotid ultrasound, was initiated in a dedicated imaging centre at UK Biobank's Cheadle (Manchester) site in May, 2014.  This has developed into a broader commitment to large data analytics through collaborative work with colleagues in the Imperial College Data Science Institute and the EPSRC Centre for Mathematics in Precision Healthcare, in which he is a co-investigator.

Led by a series of studies of glial dynamics in human disease using PET, his group recently has expanded work to elucidate roles of microglia and astrocytes in neurodegeneration in the context of both multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.  A wide range of methods are being integrated with imaging, including 'omics strategies deployed minimally invasively in blood and in isolated brain tissue post mortem. 

Amongst many external commitments, Professor Matthews and is a member of the Executive Committee for the UK Dementias Platform, the Wellcome Trust Expert Review Panel for Neurosciences and Mental Health and jointly represents the UK for Euro-Bioimaging.  He is Chair of the Board of Management of the Charity Brain.

Professor Matthews was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to neuroscience. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014.

Dr Veronique Miron is a Senior Lecturer and Medical Research Funded Senior Research Fellow at The University of Edinburgh, in the United Kingdom Dementia Research Institute and MS Society Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research. Her lab’s research focus is on investigating the regenerative properties of microglia in supporting white matter health, working towards identification of novel treatments for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and neurodegeneration in ageing.

Consultant Neurologist and Associate Professor of Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK.

Dr Jackie Palace is a consultant neurologist in Oxford and Associate Professor of Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University.  She leads the Oxford Multiple Sclerosis group and runs a national service for congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS) and jointly a UK neuromyelitis optica service (NMO) which includes adults and children.  Her MS service comprises a regional clinical service and a clinical research group.  Her research interests covers MS, NMO, CMS and myasthenia gravis and include clinical treatment trials, immunological studies, pathology, biomarkers, genetics  and imaging studies on neurodegeneration and its detection and association with inflammation.  She has been a UK lead for the National Risk Sharing Scheme which assessed the long-term effectiveness for disease modifying agents in multiple sclerosis, is a board member for the European Charcot Foundation, on the steering committee for MAGNIMS and is the Oxford lead for the  European Rare Network for Neuromuscular diseases. She is an elected member of council for the Association of British Neurologists.

Professor of Neuropathology and Chair of the Institute of Neuropathology at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Dr. Prinz obtained his MD at the Charitè, Humboldt-University Berlin in 1997. During his MD thesis he investigated the pathology of cortical interneurons in humans at the Institute of Neuroanatomy at the Charitè Berlin. He did a postdoc at the Max-Delbrück-Centre (MDC) of Molecular Medicine dedicated to the function of glial cells in the central nervous system (CNS), especially microglia. He performed his residency in Neuropathology at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland and studied there the role of the peripheral and CNS-restricted immune system for the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as prion diseases. In 2003 he became a group leader at the University Hospital in Göttingen, Germany and in 2007 lecturer of Neuropathology there.

He was recruited to the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2008 and was promoted to the rank of Full Professor and Chair of the Institute of Neuropathology.

Dr. Prinz laboratory studies the mechanisms that regulate the development and function of the mononuclear phagocyte lineage in the central nervous system including microglia, perivascular and meningeal macrophages. His laboratory has made seminal discoveries in CNS macrophage biology revealing their embryonic origin and their local maintenance in situ. Dr. Prinz belongs to several German Research Foundation (DFG)- and EU-funded scientific consortia to decipher the transcriptional regulation of the macrophage lineage in the CNS.

Currently, his research group aims to understand myeloid cell biology in the CNS during health and disease and studies the impact of the immune system on the pathogenesis of neurological disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases, ultimately aimed at recognizing novel therapeutic strategies and targets to treat these central nervous system diseases.

Dr. Prinz has authored more than 170 primary papers and reviews in high profile journals and has obtained extensive DFG and EU funding for his studies on macrophage biology in the CNS in mice and humans.

Francisco J. Quintana, PhD is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Center for Neurologic Diseases, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Dr. Quintana, a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires (1999, Argentina), obtained his PhD in immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science (2004, Israel).  He received postdoctoral training at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at Harvard Medical School.  In 2009, Dr. Quintana joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Quintana’s research investigates signaling pathways that control the immune response and neurodegeneration, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for multiple sclerosis and other immune-mediated disorders.  Dr. Quintana has published over 160 peer reviewed articles and book chapters.

Dr. Quintana is the recipient of the Lady Anne Chain Prize for Academic Excellence and Scientific Achievements, the Junior Investigator Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Pathway to Independence Award of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Award for Outstanding Research Achievement form Nature Biotechnology, the Tecan Award for Innovation, the Harry Weaver Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Mentor Award from Harvard Medical School and the Milestones in Multiple Sclerosis Research Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Scientific and clinical career
1997 - 99 Residency in Neurology, Department of Neurology, University of Tübingen (Director: Prof. Dichgans)
08/99 Approbation
1999 - 2000 PostDoc with Prof. J. Trotter at the Institute for Neurobiology, University of Heidelberg
2000 - 04 Residency in Neurology, Department of Neurology, University of Tübingen (Director: Prof. Dichgans)
06/2004 Facharzt/Specialty qualification in Neurology
2004 - 2009 Junior Group leader at the Centre for Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology, University of Göttingen
07/2005 Habilitation in Neurology, University of Tübingen
2007 - now Consulting neurologist (‘Oberarzt’) at the Department of Neurology; Head of the Multiple Sclerosis out-patient clinic, Department of Neurology, University of Göttingen
2008 - now Group leader at the Max-Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine
02/2009 - 2014 Heisenberg Professorship, Department of Neurology, University of Göttingen
02/2014 – 12/2015 W3- Professorship, Department of Neurology, University of Göttingen
01/2016 - now W3- Professorship and Director, Institute of Neuronal Cell Biology, TU Munich Affiliation with Department of Neurology, TU Munich and the DZNE/Munich Member, SyNergy Excellence Cluster

Fellowships, Awards & honors
1995 National award for the best MD thesis in Germany (6. Deutscher Ärztekongress)
1998 Ruprechts-Karls-Award, University of Heidelberg
1999 - 2000 Post-Doctoral Stipend, DFG
2001 Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Award
2002 Akademie-Award ‚Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften‘
2003 Attempto-Award in Neurosciences; University of Tübingen
2004 offer of Heisenberg Fellowship, DFG (declined)
2008 EMBO, Young Investigator Award
2009 W3-Heisenberg Professorship, DFG
2014 Ilse & Hans Breuer Award