Who are we?

Dr. Smets is an academic neurologist who specialises in multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases. She currently works in the Department of Neurology at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London, UK.

Ide completed her MD at the Catholic University of Leuven (2012), and then trained as a Clinical Neurologist at University Hospitals Leuven. In parallel with her clinical training, she obtained a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (2018) in the Laboratory for Neuroimmunology at the Catholic University of Leuven under supervision of prof. Bénédicte Dubois and prof. An Goris. During her PhD, she was able to demonstrate how genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis shape an individual’s immune system, and in particular the B cell pool. Other scientific projects involved the relation between the MS genetic burden and novel MRI measures such as magnetization transfer ratio which quantifies the amount of myelin in the brain.

After graduating as a general neurologist (2019), she moved on towards a clinical fellowship at the Department of Neurology, Barts and The London NHS Trust where she is simultaneously involved in a large spectrum of clinical research at the Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

Contact details: Dr. Ide Smets, Blizard Institute, 4 Newark Street, London E1 2AT, UK. Email: i.smets@qmul.ac.uk

Dr Reyes is an academic neurologist who specialises in multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases. He currently works in the Department of Neurology at Clínica los Nogales, Bogotá, Colombia.

Dr Reyes completed his MD at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, achieving first national place in the official exam for medical students in Colombia (ECAES, 2012). He then trained as a Clinical Neurologist at the Universidad El Bosque in Bogotá, before winning the ECTRIMS Clinical Training Fellowship in 2018. As an MS fellow (2018-2020), Dr Reyes provided clinical care to people with MS at the Department of Neurology, Barts and The London NHS Trust, and he was simultaneously involved in a large spectrum of clinical research in MS at the Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK.

Dr Reyes research interests include Vaccination in people with MS, Neurofilaments and Social Capital. He currently serves on the scientific steering committee for the Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis online conference (triMS.online). In addition to his work in the UK, Dr Reyes works with the MS and related disorders research group from the Hospital Universitario Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá (FSFB), which is known in Colombia and Latin America for its pioneering work on the epidemiology, genetic predisposition and environmental risk factors for MS in their population.

Contact details: Dr. Saúl Reyes, Calle 95 # 23-61. Bogotá D.C. 110221, Colombia. Email: s.reyes@qmul.ac.uk. Assistant: Juli Cardona, Tel: +57 321 760 9835, Email: saulreyesmd@gmail.com

Professor Gavin Giovannoni is an academic neurologist who specialises in multiple sclerosis and related disorders. He works in the Department of Neurology at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London, UK. Gavin was appointed to the Chair of Neurology, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Department of Neurology at Barts Health NHS Trust in November 2006. He is primarily based in the Blizard Institute. In 2017, he became co-director of the Preventive Neurology Unit, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine.

His medical training was completed at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and he continued his studies by completing a PhD in Immunology at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, in 1998. In 1999 he was appointed Clinical Senior Lecturer at the Royal Free and University College Medical School before moving back to the Institute of Neurology in 2000. He runs a translational MS research programme at Barts and The London School of Medicine.

Gavin’s current research focuses on the Epstein‒Barr virus as a possible cause of MS, MS-related neurodegeneration and MS biomarker discovery and validation. He co-authors the widely read and influential Barts-MS blog. And he is the Chair of the MS Brain Health Steering Committee, an international initiative launched in 2015, with the goal of revolutionising the management of MS to maximise lifelong ‘brain health’ and improve patient outcomes.

Gavin is also the academic director of the MS Academy, an innovative training programme for medical professionals who want to develop expertise in MS.

Contact details: Professor Gavin Giovannoni, Blizard Institute, 4 Newark Street, London E1 2AT, UK. Email: g.giovannoni@qmul.ac.uk. Twitter: @gavingiovannoni. Assistant: Stephanie Gardner, Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 2579, Fax: +44 (0)20 7882 2180, Email: giovannoni.pa@gmail.com