Multiple Sclerosis In The Crossfire 2009: New Therapies for MS

Professor of Neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine
Director, Wayne State University Multiple Sclerosis Center & Image Analysis Laboratory,
Detroit, MI

Dr. Omar Khan has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and book chapters. He has received numerous awards, and has served as faculty for the American Academy of Neurology, and the European Charcot Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis Research. Dr. Khan is an elected member of the American Neurological Association and also serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS).

Dr. Khan has served as principal investigator on several landmark exploratory and multi-center clinical trials. His areas of interest include imaging and the genetics of multiple sclerosis, and developing therapeutic approaches to treat multiple sclerosis.

Professor, Department of Neurology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Co-Director, RMMSC at Anschutz Medical Center
Medical Director, Rocky Mountain MS Center,
Denver, CO

Widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in multiple sclerosis, Dr. Timothy Vollmer is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine and a former faculty member at the Yale School of Medicine.

He joined the Rocky Mountain MS Center following six years as the Van Denburgh Professor at Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) where he served as Director of the Neuroimmunology and MS Programs. Dr. Vollmer built BNI’s MS Program to include a large clinic, an active lab investigating antigen-based therapies, a vibrant clinical research program, and an international registry collecting data on over 32,000 patients. Under his leadership, the Institute’s MS Program was honored as a Center of Excellence by the Consortium of MS Centers.

In 2008, Dr. Vollmer joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Denver as a Professor of Neurology. Dr. Vollmer is currently involved as Principle Investigator or Sub Investigator in 18 clinical studies at the University of Colorado, with participation in additional studies in the near future.

To date, Dr. Vollmer has completed over 70 clinical studies in MS. He remains active in the international community conducting research in MS, lecturing frequently in the United States and Europe.

Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology,
The University of California, San Francisco, Multiple Sclerosis Center,
San Francisco, CA

After graduating from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Dr. Bruce Cree earned his medical degree and his PhD from the University of California San Francisco. He completed his residency in Neurology at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia University), New York City. He returned to the University of California, San Francisco where he undertook postdoctoral subspecialty training in multiple sclerosis as a Sylvia Lawry fellow. Additionally, he received a Master’s degree in Clinical Research at the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Dr. Cree is board certified in neurology, and has served as an investigator on numerous clinical studies in multiple sclerosis. Much of his research focuses on trying to understand the genetic contributions to multiple sclerosis susceptibility and disease expression.

Director, Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research Center,
Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology, Golden Valley, Minnesota
Adjunct Professor of Neurology, University of Minnesota School of Medicine,
Minneapolis, MN

Following his graduation from Hobart College, Geneva, New York, Dr. Gary Birnbaum earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, and completed a medicine internship and a neurology residency at Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York. Additionally, he was a research associate in neurovirology at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland and completed a fellowship in neuroimmunology at Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Birnbaum is board certified in psychiatry and neurology.

As an invited lecturer and visiting professor, Dr. Birnbaum has spoken throughout the United States, Europe, and India on topics including heat shock proteins, plasmapheresis as treatment for MS, biotechnology in medicine, and neuroimmmunology. He has served as principal investigator on numerous MS clinical trials, and has published extensively in periodicals such as Journal of Pediatrics, Annals of Neurology, Neurology, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Birnbaum recently completed a book on MS, and was one of the editors of the book “Clinical Neuroimmunology.” He served on the Institutional Review Board of the University of Minnesota and on multiple NIH Advisory Sections.

Dr. Birnbaum is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the National MS Society, and is a member of the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Medical Association.