The PSP Association's Medical Advisory Panel, composed of eminent scientists and clinicians from around the globe, is responsible for ensuring that research funded by The PSP Association has the potential to make a big difference to the lives of people with PSP, is of the highest quality and represents value for money.
Members of the Medical Advisory Panel normally serve a four year term of office, renewable for a further four years by invitation from The PSP Association. Thereafter, following a minimum break of one year, members may serve for one more four year term of office by invitation. New members join the Panel by invitation from The PSP Association.
Professor Andrew Lees
UK. Chair of the Medical Advisory Panel
Professor Lees is Professor of Neurology at University College London and Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He is also Director of the Sara Koe Research Centre, Director of the Rita Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, and Clinical Director of the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders.
Professor Lees is one of the most eminent and well respected neurologists in the world. His knowledge and expertise on PSP and other neurological disease is sought on an international basis. Professor Lees' research interests centre on seeking ways to achieve earlier and better diagnosis and finding a treatment for PSP.
Professor Yves Agid
France
Professor Agid has spent most of his medical career at the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris where he is Professor of Experimental Medicine and Cell Biology. He has a long and distinguished career and has held many high profile positions including amongst others Director of Inserm U289 laboratory, Chairman of the Institute of Neurosciences, Chairman of the Institute of Neurology at Salpêtrière, President of the French Society of Neurology, President of the Scientific Council of Foundation pour la Recherche Médicale .
Professor Agid has published more than 600 articles. He is the most cited French neuroscientist in the last twenty years and is the second most cited author among all French scientists. His primary research interests are in developing a better understanding of the causes and mechanisms of cell death in neurodegenerative diseases.
Professor David Burn
UK
Professor David Burn is Professor in Movement Disorder Neurology at the University of Newcastle, Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the Regional Neurosciences Centre and Director of the Clinical Aging Research Unit in Newcastle.
Professor Burn represented the Royal College of Physicians on the NICE National Guidelines writing group for Parkinson’s diseases and is a member of the Movement Disorder Society Task Force for Parkinson’s disease with dementia. He is Clinical Review Editor for the journal Movement Disorders and is a member of the editorial boards for the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry; and Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation. He is Chair of the Parkinson’s Disease Clinical Study Group for the UK Department of Health Clinical Research Network for Dementias and Neurodegenerative Disease (DeNDRoN). Professor Burn’s wide-ranging research interests span both Parkinson’s disease and PSP.
Professor Phillipe Damier
France
Professor Damier is Professor of Neurology at the University Hospital of Nantes. After qualifying in medicine in France he spent time working on Parkinson’s disease at the Ann Graybiel Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA where he was appointed Associate Professor and subsequently Head of the Clinical Research Centre before returning to France.
Professor Damier is one of France’s leading authorities on neurological disease and has authored/co-authored more than 80 original research publications and 20 reviews.
Dr. Laurence Golbe
USA
Dr Laurence Golbe is Professor of Neurology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in New Brunswick, NJ, USA. He is Director of Research and Clinical Affairs for Cure PSP, the charity for people with PSP in the USA, and for many years has championed the co-operation and collaboration between The PSP Association in Europe and Cure PSP in North America.
Dr Golbe has authored or co-authored more than 150 research publications and textbook chapters. His research interests are wide-ranging with particular accomplishments including having led the team that discovered the first genetic mutation causing Parkinson’s disease; he led the first epidemiologic study of PSP, and developed a PSP Rating Scale that has achieved worldwide use.
Professor John Hardy
UK
In 2007, after 15 years in the USA holding some of the world’s most prestigious scientific positions, including Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic and Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics at the US National Institute of Health, Professor John Hardy returned to UK to lead groundbreaking new research at the Institute of Neurology’s Department of Molecular Neuroscience in London.
Professor Hardy’s scientific accomplishments are many and include his having led the group which found the first mutation in the amyloid gene that causes Alzheimer’s disease; he was part of an international consortium that identified mutations in the tau gene in Pick’s disease and was part of the group which found mutations in the synuclein gene in Parkinson’s disease. Professor Hardy has won the Allied Signal, Potamkin, MetLife and Kaul Prizes for his work on Alzheimer’s disease; the Anna Marie Opprecht Prize for his work on Parkinson’s disease, and has been elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Dr. Irene Litvan
USA
Dr Irene Litvan is the Raymond Lee Lebby endowed Professor of Parkinson Disease Research at the Univeristy of Louisville (UofL) and the Chief of the Division of Movement Disorders. She also directs the UofL Division of Movement Disorders National Parkinson Foundation Centre of Excellence at the Frazier Rehab Institute. She is an elected member of the American Neurological Association.
Dr Litvan has published 185 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and is senior editor for 4 books on atypical Parkinsonian disorders and dementias. She is co-editor of the Movement Disorder Society newsletter and has served on many boards and committees. Dr Litvan is Secretary to the World Federation Neurology Research Group on Dementia. She has received several awards for her work including the NIH Merit Award.
Professor Werner Poewe
Austria
Professor Werner Poewe is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Department of Neurology at Innsbruck Medical University.
Professor Poewe’s research interests are in the field of movement disorders with particular emphasis on the pharmacology of Parkinson’s disease and dystonia. He has undertaken research in Austria and the UK. Professor Poewe is the author or co-author of more than 400 original articles and reviews.
Professor Poewe has served as President of the International Movement Disorder Society and as President of the Austrian Society of Neurology. He is currently President of the Austrian Parkinson’s disease Society.
Professor Peter Pramstaller
Italy
Professor Peter Pramstaller’s research interest centres on the molecular genetics of movement disorders, with a particular focus on common age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Professor Pramstaller was the first Research Fellow to be supported by The PSP Association during his visit to the UK to conduct research at the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square in London.
On his return to Italy in 1995, Professor Pramstaller started a large scale neuroepidemiology project on Parkinson’s disease and related disorders in South Tyrol. This work, which combined epidemiology and genetics, led to the discovery of the largest known kindred with Parkin-associated parkinsonism. Based on the success of this work, in 2002 Professor Pramstaller went on to start the ‘GenNova Health Care Programme’, an extensive two stage survey aimed at characterising the genetic epidemiology of Mendelian and complex diseases in South Tyrolean populations. In addition to pursuing his research interests Professor Pramstaller leads the Parkinson’s disease clinic at the Central Hospital of Bolzano.
Professor Niall Quinn
UK
Professor Niall Quinn is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Institute of Neurology, University College London where until recently he was Clinical Sub-Dean for 9 years, and Honorary Consultant Neurologist to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Professor Quinn specializes in movement disorders and has particular interest in young onset Parkinson’s disease, Multiple System Atrophy and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. He is a world renowned expert with over 500 publications (excluding abstracts) some 350 of which are original peer reviewed papers. He has served on the editorial boards of Movement Disorders and the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and is currently on the editorial board for Lancet Neurology.
Professor Quinn has served as Secretary to the International Movement Disorder Society and as Chairman of its European Section, and in 2006 was bestowed with Honorary Life Membership. He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, Corresponding Senior Member of the American Neurological Association and Honorary Foreign Member of the Société Fancaise de Neurologie. He also serves on the Medical Advisory Panel for the Dystonia Society and on the steering committee for the European MSA Study Group.
Professor Martin Rossor
UK
Professor Martin Rosser is Director of the Dementia Research Centre at the Institute of Neurology and Honary Consultant Neurologist at St Mary’s Hospital and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London. He is also Chairman of the Division of Neurology at the latter.
Professor Rosser’s research interests are in neurodegenerative disease and particularly in familial disease. He established a specialist cognitive disorders clinic which acts as a tertiary referral service for young onset and rare dementias.
Professor Rosser is editor of the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. He holds positions on a number of academic committees and editorial boards as well as membership of various learned societies. In 2006 Professor Rosser was appointed Director of the Department of Health Clinical Research Network for Dementias and Neurodegenerative Disease (DeNDRoN).
Professor John Steele
Guam
As a young doctor in Toronto in 1964, Professor John Steele was privileged to describe Progressive Supranuclear Palsy with Chief of Neurology, John Clifford Richardson and Professor of Neuropathology, Jerzy Olszewski. Whilst PSP is thought to have existed before that date, their 1964 paper is the first medical description and record of PSP.
Since 1972 Professor Steele has lived on the island of Guam in Western Oceania where he has pursued studies of Lytico-bodig disease, an endemic tauopathy of local people, which has many similarities to PSP. Remarkably this disease has steadily declined over the past 50 years and may disappear. Professor Steele and his colleagues are searching for the cause of the disease as they believe this holds the key to end PSP and related neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gerhig’s disease.
Professor Eduardo Tolosa
Spain
Professor Eduardo Tolosa is Chief of Neurology and Director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Unit at the University Hospital in Barcelona. He is also Director of the University of Barcelona Brain Bank.
Professor Tolosa is an internationally renowned expert and spent part of his early career undertaking work at leading neurological institutes in the USA. He has conducted drug trials and clinical pharmacological studies in patients with various types of movement disorder and has published widely on this and related topics.
Professor Tolosa is a member of the American Academy of Neurology; Fellow of the American Neurological Association and founding member of the Movement Disorder Society. He serves on many committees and boards and acts as an advisor to many societies and organisations.
Professor Nick Wood
UK
Professor Wood is Professor of Clinical Neurology and Neurogenetics at the Institute of Neurology and Head of the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at University College London . He is also a Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.
Professor Wood is a world renowned expert on neurological disease. He is a member of many learned societies and has served and/or currently serves on the editorial board and is an expert reviewer in the field of neurology for many of the leading national and international medical and scientific journals. He provides expert advice to numerous medical and medical research panels and is an expert reviewer of grant applications for many medical research grant funding bodies.
Professor Wood has been awarded many prizes for his work including The Charles Symmonds Memorial Award from the Association of British Neurologists, The Doris Hillier Award from the British Medical Association and the Linacre Medal from the Royal College of Physicians in London.