Hans Lassmann is retired Professor for Neuroimmunology and currently works as a research associate at the Center for Brain Research at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna and was then trained in clinical and experimental neuropathology at the Institute of Neurology. This scientific education was complemented by a post-doctoral training in experimental neuropathology and neuroimmunology at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities. He then became the head of a research Unit at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Professor for Experimental Neuropathology in the University of Vienna. In 1999 he was appointed as full professor for Neuroimmunology at the Medical University of Vienna and as the founding director of the Center for Brain Research. He retired from this position in 2017 and is currently engaged as a research associate in the Department of Neuroimmunology. His major research interests are in the field of neuroimmunology and immunopathology of the central nervous system with special focus on the pathogenesis of inflammatory brain diseases, including multiple sclerosis. He has received numerous research wards, including the Charcot award, the research prize of the Sobek foundation and the Translational Medicine Prize of the Gertrud Reemtsma-Stiftung / Max Planck Gesellschaft. He is honorary member of the Japanese and the French Neurological Societies and Member of the Austrian and the German (Leopoldina) Academies of Sciences.

Claudia Sommer is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. She received training in neurology, psychiatry, neuropathology, and experimental pain research. At the University Hospital of Würzburg, she serves as a consultant in neurology, organizes outpatient clinics for patients with neuromuscular disorders, pain and headache, and she leads the Peripheral Nerve Laboratory with a service for nerve-, muscle- and skin biopsies. Research interests are the role of inflammation in neuropathy and pain, and how autoantibodies are related to diseases. A major focus of the lab are the antibody-mediated diseases, in particular the autoimmune neuropathies and disorders of the stiff-person spectrum disorder. Prof. Sommer has written more than 300 original research papers and more than 100 reviews and book-chapters and edited several books. She has served as President of the German Pain Society in 2019 to 2020 and as President of the International Society for the Study of Pain (IASP) from 2020 to 2022). She is a Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), and has been involved in their educational activities for many years. She is presently a Board member of the Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) and has received the PNS 2023 Gebhart Prize for her work on inflammatory neuropathies. She is active in the German competence network for peripheral neuropathies (KKPNS), and is Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Neurology.

Francisco J. Quintana, PhD is a Professor of Neurology at the Ann Romney 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 is also the President of the International Society of Neuro Immunology (ISNI).

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 Harvard Medical School.  In 2009, Dr. Quintana joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Quintana’s research is focused on Neuroimmunology, investigating signaling pathways that control inflammation and neurodegeneration, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets for immune-mediated and neurodegenerative disorders.  Dr. Quintana has published over 230 peer reviewed articles and book chapters.  Dr. Quintana’s work identified the transcription factor AHR as an important regulator of inflammation driven by adaptive and innate immune cells. He defined mechanisms by which cell-cell interactions, metabolism, the microbiome, and environmental chemicals control inflammation and neurodegeneration. Dr. Quintana’s work guided the development of Tapinarof, the first FDA-approved AHR-targeting drug for the treatment of psoriasis.

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, the Milestones in Multiple Sclerosis Research Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Association of Immunologists-BD Biosciences Investigator Award, ISI Most Highly Cited List, the Barancik Prize of Innovation in Multiple Sclerosis Research, IGNITE BWH award and the Raices Prize for Excellence in Research (Argentina). In 2021, Dr. Quintana was named the Kuchroo Weiner Distinguished Professor of Neuroimmunology.

Dr. Foster joined UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Center of Depression Research and Clinical Care in May 2022. Her work focuses on linking a person’s 30 trillion gut microbes and their propensity for mental illness.

In the past 20 years, Dr. Foster has developed an internationally recognized translational research program. Her multidisciplinary expertise includes behavioral neuroscience, molecular biology, immunology, neuroimaging, microbiome, and bioinformatics in both preclinical and clinical research domains. Dr. Foster’s research program has developed high quality analytical pipelines for biological data and has developed novel analytical tools for integrating data across modalities. Dr. Foster’s involvement in the broader psychiatric community across Canada, the US, and Europe, provides a unique opportunity to study the complex neurobiological underpinnings of microbiota-brain and neuroimmune systems in psychiatric illness in clinical populations and to explore underlying biological mechanism in animal models.

Frauke Zipp’s research is focused on effector mechanisms, including biomarkers and repair during brain pathologies involving inflammation such as in multiple sclerosis, stroke and aging, and particularly the delicate balance between the immune and nervous systems in health and disease.

Frauke Zipp is a Clinician Scientist. As such she performs research on effector mechanisms including their biomarker and concepts of repair in inflammatory pathology of the brain such as in multiple sclerosis, with a focus on the delicate balance of the immune and nervous system in health and disease. Apart from participating on several advisory or executive boards (such as MSIF, ECTRIMS, ISNI, KKNMS) and reviewing for international journals, research agencies as well as research and clinical societies, she has published in journals such as Lancet, Cell, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Immunity and Nature Cell Biology. Frauke Zipp is active as Scientific Advisory Board Member of Science Translational Medicine, in trial steering committees and safety boards, and has organized international meetings as well as is member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the European Academia Europaea. She is the founding speaker of two trans-regional collaborative research centers and, together with four colleagues, founding member of a German Research Foundation (DFG) excellence cluster (NeuroCure, Charité Berlin). Not only through these networks but also in women scientist networks and through direct mentorship, Frauke Zipp has mentored several female scientists and young investigators who are in leading positions in medicine.