The Role of Pharmaceutical Companies in Drug Development for Rare Neuroimmune Diseases

October 13, 2014

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About Our Guest Speakers

Ben_GreenbergBenjamin M. Greenberg, MD, MHS

Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Director of the Transverse Myelitis and Neuromyelitis Optica Program, Dallas, TX

Associate Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, Deputy Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program and Director of the Transverse Myelitis and Neuromyelitis Optica Program, Dallas, TX

Dr. Benjamin Greenberg received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Masters Degree in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Then, he completed an internship in medicine at Rush Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois before going on to his residency in neurology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He then joined the faculty within the division of neuroimmunology at Hopkins and became the co-director of the Transverse Myelitis Center and director of the Encephalitis Center. In January of 2009 he was recruited to the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where he was named Deputy Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program and Director of the new Transverse Myelitis and Neuromyelitis Optica Program. That same year he established the Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Program at Children’s Medical Center Dallas.

Dr. Greenberg is recognized internationally as an expert in rare autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system (e.g. transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, ADEM and autoimmune encephalitis). He splits his clinical time between seeing both adult and pediatric patients. He routinely consults on the inpatient units of University Hospital, Zale Lipshy, Parkland and Children’s. His research interests are in both the diagnosis and treatment of transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica, encephalitis, multiples sclerosis and infections of the nervous system. He is actively involved in developing better ways to diagnose and prognosticate for patients with these disorders. He has led an effort to improve biorepository development and has created uniform protocols for sample handling and analysis. As part of this initiative his research has identified novel biomarkers that may be able to distinguish between patients with various neurologic disorders. He also coordinates trials that study new treatments to prevent neurologic damage and restore function to those who have already been affected. He currently serves as the Director of the Neurosciences Clinical Research Center and is a Cain-Denius Foundation Scholar.

Doug_KerrDouglas A. Kerr, MD, PHD, MBA

Director, Experimental Neurology at Biogen Idec, Boston, MA

Dr. Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A serves as Senior Medical Director of Neurology Research and Development at Biogen-Idec, where Dr. Kerr is responsible for late stage neurodegenerative programs, focusing on the motor neuron disorders ALS and SMA. Prior to joining Biogen Idec in 2009, Dr. Kerr served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he was an Associate Professor of Neurology with joint appointments in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Cellular and Molecular Medicine. There he specialized in transverse myelitis and multiple sclerosis as well as SMA and ALS. Dr. Kerr also worked on stem cells as a therapeutic tool for functional recovery in patients with TM and motor neuron diseases. Dr. Kerr established the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center which was the only such center at the time, and also founded and directed the Johns Hopkins Project RESTORE, a multidisciplinary effort dedicated to advancement of treatments for autoimmune neurologic disorders. In 2006, Dr. Kerr was awarded the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award from the American Neurological Association as one who “has achieved a significant stature in neurological research and whose promise of continuing major contributions to the field of neurology is anticipated.”