Orhan Aktas received his undergraduate training at the universities of Bochum and Strasbourg. After graduation as MD in 1999, he served a neuroimmunology fellowship at the Charité, Humboldt-University of Berlin, and at the Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He started his career in Neurology at the Charité and was appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf in 2008. Since 2013, he is Associate Professor for Molecular Neurology and in charge of the Düsseldorf Multiple Sclerosis Center at the Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University.

Professor Aktas’s clinical and research interests are in the field of basic and clinical neuroimmunology, in particular Multiple Sclerosis (MS) as well as Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and further antibody-mediated variants, particularly MOG-IgG associated disease (MOGAD).

He has authored or co-authored a large series of primary research articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Cell Biology, Cell, Neuron, JAMA Neurology, Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Lancet, Lancet Neurology and contributed to review articles and editorials in Trends in Neurosciences, Lancet Neurology, Journal of Neurology, and Annals of Neurology.

He has been involved as a principal investigator in international multicentre therapeutic trials in Multiple Sclerosis as well as NMOSD and has designed investigator-initiated trials in translational neuroimmunology. He is also a member of the International MS Visual System Consortium (IMSVISUAL), member of the International Clinical Consortium of The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation for NMOSD research, as well as co-founder and co-coordinator of the German Neuromyelitis optica Study Group (NEMOS, www.nemos-net.de).

Prof. Isobe is a Professor and Chairperson, Department of Neurology, Kyushu University, Japan. Her main focus in both research and clinics is on immune-mediated diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) including multiple sclerosis (MS).

Professor Isobe graduated School of Medicine, Kyushu University and completed a PhD at the Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University.

She worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco from 2010-2017.

She got special training on MS and had seen and treated many MS patients in the clinic. Furthermore, she also has extensive experience with the diagnosis and management of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD).

Her current research interests include genetic susceptibility to MS, genetic determinants of disease progression in MS and NMOSD, and T-cell receptor repertoires in MS.

Dr. Ahmed Obeidat is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He works with adults in diagnosing, treating, and managing Multiple Sclerosis and Immune Disorders of the Central Nervous System.

He received his medical degree with honors from the Jordan University of Science and Technology in 2008. He then joined the graduate program in neuroscience and physiology at Wright State University (WSU) in Dayton, Ohio where he received a PhD in Neuroscience and Physiology in 2013. He completed his neurology residency at the University of Cincinnati in 2017 as well as fellowship training in Demyelinating Diseases and Neuroimmunology, also from the University of Cincinnati, in 2018.

Dr. Obeidat is an advocate for medical humanities and believes in the power of patient stories in shaping a successful, and long-lasting patient-doctor relationship.