Biography
Professor of Neurology, Senior Neurologist, Chairman of the Neurosciences Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu†Cluj-Napoca, President of the Romanian Society of Neurology, President of the Society for the Study of Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity (SSNN), member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Romania, secretary of its Cluj Branch. He is also member of 13 scientific international societies (being member of the American Neurological Association (ANA) - Fellow of ANA (FANA) since 2012) and 7 national ones, being part of the executive board of most. Professor Dafin F. Muresanu is a specialist in Leadership and Management of Research and Health Care Systems (specialization in Management and Leadership, Arthur Anderson Institute, Illinois, USA, 1998 and several international courses and training stages in Neurology, research, management and leadership). Professor Dafin F. Muresanu is coordinator in international educational programs of European Master (i.e. European Master in Stroke Medicine, University of Krems), organizer and co-organizer of many educational projects: European and international schools and courses (International School of Neurology, European Stroke Organisation summer School, Danubian Neurological Society Teaching Courses, Seminars - Department of Neurosciences, European Teaching Courses on Neurorehabilitation) and scientific events: congresses, conferences, symposia (International Congresses of the Society for the Study of Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity (SSNN), International Association of Neurorestoratology (IANR) & Global College for Neuroprotection and Neuroregeneration (GCNN) Conferences, Vascular Dementia Congresses (VaD), World Congresses on Controversies in Neurology (CONy), Danube Society Neurology Congresses, World Academy for Multidisciplinary Neurotraumatolgy (AMN) Congresses, Congresses of European Society for Clinical Neuropharmacology, European Congresses of Neurorehabilitation). His activity includes involvement in many national and international clinical studies and research projects, over 300 scientific participations as “invited speaker†in national and international scientific events, a significant portfolio of scientific articles (120 papers indexed on Web of Science-ISI, H-index: 14) as well as contributions in monographs and books published by prestigious international publishing houses. Prof. Dr. Dafin F. Muresanu has been honoured with: the Academy of Romanian Scientists, “Carol Davila Award for Medical Sciences / 2011â€, for the contribution to the Neurosurgery book “Tratat de Neurochirurgie†(vol.2), Editura Medicala, Bucuresti, 2011; the Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu†Cluj-Napoca “Octavian Fodor Award†for the best scientific activity of the year 2010 and the 2009 Romanian Academy “Gheorghe Marinescu Award†for advanced contributions in Neuroprotection and Neuroplasticity.
Research Interest
Neurology and Nanomedicine
Biography
Jose-Vicente Lafuente received his Degree in Medicine and Ph.D. from University of Zaragoza (Spain). He is Full Professor for Human Anatomy and Embryology at the Department of Neurosciences, University of Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain). He has supervised more than 20 M.D. and Ph.D. students. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Valparaiso (Chile, 2011) and Cuyo, (Mendoza, Argentina, 2009) and Visiting Researcher at the Institute of Neuropathology of the Free University of Berlin (Germany, 1997) and the Department of Pathology. Midland Centre for Neurosurgery and Neurology. Birmingham (U.K., 1992). His main Research interests are in neuropathology and neurobiology of brain edema, adaptive postnatal changes in the microvasculature of the central nervous system in health and disease. He has been autor of 140 original papers and 33 reviewed book chapters. He has leadered or taken part in 43 research projects supported by public or privat institutions. He is actively involved in cooperative networking in neuroscience research.
Research Interest
His main Research interests are in neuropathology and neurobiology of brain edema, adaptive postnatal changes in the microvasculature of the central nervous system in health and disease
Biography
Professor Magdalena Plebanski (BScHon, MA, MBA, PhD) is a Senior Research Fellow (NHMRC Australia) and leads the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Unit at the Department of Immunology and Pathology, Monash University, Australia. She is also the inaugural co-Head of the Immunotherapy and Regenerative Medicine Division at the newly established Monash Institute of Medical Engineering (MIME). Amongst many awards, she has been recipient of the prestigious International Howard Hughes Fellow Award. She arrived in Australia mid-1999 after a high impact postdoctoral career at Oxford University, United Kingdom, producing field changing findings on vaccines and immune evasion mechanisms that can interfere with vaccine efficacy, including: Lancet, 1995; Nature Biotechnology 1997; Science 1998; Immunity 1999; Nature Medicine 1999; Nature 1999. Since her arrival in Australia she continued to successfully merge technological innovation with translational science (e.g. Nature Medicine, 2004; Plos Pathogens 2009a, 2009b, 2009c; Clin. Cancer Res., 2013; Nature Communications, 2013; Nature Communications, 2015). She is regularly invited as keynote and plenary speaker at international conferences. Her 5 families of PCT patents have progressed to commercialisation nationally and internationally, and she has been Director in two successfully commercialised biotechnology companies.
Research Interest
Prof. Plebanski’s current primary interest is to develop practical and affordable vaccines against complex diseases, specifically malaria and cancer (ovarian cancer and leukemias), and to this end she pioneered the use of synthetic size-defined non-inflammatory nanoparticles. Her nanoparticle studies recently also opened to door to new nanotechnology applications to prevent allergic airways disease and asthma (J. Immunol., 2012, 2013). She has >120 peer-reviewed publications (plus books and abstracts). Her current interests also include the study of the interaction of different types of nanoparticles and biomaterials with key antigen presenting cells of the immune system (dendritic cells, macrophages, MDSC, B cells) and she collaborates extensively with chemical engineers and chemists.