Charalampos (Haris) Tzoulis (born in 1979, in Athens, Greece) is Professor of Neurology and Neurogenetics at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. He is a Consultant neurologist and co-Director of the Neuro-SysMed National Center for Clinical Treatment Research in neurological diseases, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. [1] At the Neuro-SysMed Center, Prof. Tzoulis is research Director for neurodegeneration. In addition, in 2022, Prof. Tzoulis established the K.G. Jebsen Center for Translational Research in Parkinson's disease at the University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital, with funding from the K.G. Jebsen Foundation, [2] focusing on better diagnostics and identification of disease subtypes in order to offer personalized treatments.
In 2010 Prof. Tzoulis obtained his PhD at the University of Bergen with a project on Clinical and molecular studies of Mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (POLG) associated disease. [3] Tzoulis is professor in neurology and neurogenetics at the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Bergen, with an appointment at Haukeland University Hospital. As a clinical neurologist, Prof. Tzoulis is an expert on movement disorders and neurodegeneration, including dementia and parkinsonism. He leads the research group "Neuromics", [4] which focuses on exploring the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease with the aim to improve patient diagnosis and develop neuroprotective therapies. Amongst others, he has received a Career Grant from the Western Norway Regional Health Authority (2014-2018), [5] a career fellowship from the Trond Mohn Foundation (2017-2021), [6] and several awards for excellent research (e.g., Falch Research Prize in 2018 [7] ).
Prof. Tzoulis is Neuro-SysMed's co-director, Head of Neurodegeneration Research and Principal Investigator for Parkinson's Disease. [8]
Neurology is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Neurological practice relies heavily on the field of neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system.
The University of Bergen is a public research university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university has over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 based on several older scientific institutions dating back to 1825, and is Norway's second-oldest university. It is considered one of Norway's four "established universities" and has faculties and programmes in all the fields of a classical university including fields that are traditionally reserved by law for established universities, including medicine and law. It is also one of Norway's leading universities in many natural sciences, including marine research and climate research. It is consistently ranked in the top one percentage among the world's universities, usually among the best 200 universities and among the best 10 or 50 universities worldwide in some fields such as earth and marine sciences. It is part of the Coimbra Group and of the U5 group of Norway's oldest and highest ranked universities.
Anita Elizabeth Harding was an Irish-British neurologist, and Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Institute of Neurology of the University of London. She is known for the discovery with Ian Holt and John Morgan-Hughes of the "first identification of a mitochondrial DNA mutation in human disease and the concept of tissue heteroplasmy of mutant mitochondrial DNA", published in Nature in 1986. In 1985 she established the first neurogenetics research group in the United Kingdom at the UCL Institute of Neurology.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$2.03 billion. The mission of NINDS is "to reduce the burden of neurological disease—a burden borne by every age group, every segment of society, and people all over the world". NINDS has established two major branches for research: an extramural branch that funds studies outside the NIH, and an intramural branch that funds research inside the NIH. Most of NINDS' budget goes to fund extramural research. NINDS' basic science research focuses on studies of the fundamental biology of the brain and nervous system, genetics, neurodegeneration, learning and memory, motor control, brain repair, and synapses. NINDS also funds clinical research related to diseases and disorders of the brain and nervous system, e.g. AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.
Trond Mohn is a Norwegian billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the owner and chief executive officer (CEO) of the family-owned company Frank Mohn AS.
A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple system atrophy, tauopathies, and prion diseases. Neurodegeneration can be found in the brain at many different levels of neuronal circuitry, ranging from molecular to systemic. Because there is no known way to reverse the progressive degeneration of neurons, these diseases are considered to be incurable; however research has shown that the two major contributing factors to neurodegeneration are oxidative stress and inflammation. Biomedical research has revealed many similarities between these diseases at the subcellular level, including atypical protein assemblies and induced cell death. These similarities suggest that therapeutic advances against one neurodegenerative disease might ameliorate other diseases as well.
Susan Perlman is a Professor in the Department of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also Director of Ataxia and Neurogenetics Program and Post-polio Program at that school. She has long been the primary investigator for Friedreich's ataxia trials and sits on the Medical Advisory Board of the National Ataxia Foundation.
Andrew John Lees FRCP FRCP(G) FMedSci is Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and University College London. In 2011 he was named as the world's most highly cited Parkinson's disease researcher.
Clinical neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the scientific study of fundamental mechanisms that underlie diseases and disorders of the brain and central nervous system. It seeks to develop new ways of conceptualizing and diagnosing such disorders and ultimately of developing novel treatments.
Louise Mohn is a Norwegian businesswoman who is the founder and chief executive officer of Luzmon Medical Technology.
Gunnar Bovim is a Norwegian physician and civil servant. He has been the rector at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology from August 1, 2013 to August 21, 2019. After that he will be working with policy matters related to education and research at NTNU and be of disposal to NTNUs top management.
Maria Grazia Spillantini, is Professor of Molecular Neurology in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. She is most noted for identifying the protein alpha-synuclein as the major component of Lewy bodies, the characteristic protein deposit found in the brain in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. She has also identified mutations in the MAPT gene as a heritable cause for frontotemporal dementia.
The European Academy of Neurology (EAN) is a non-profit organisation that unites and supports neurologists across Europe. Currently, 47 European national neurological societies as well as 4000 individuals are registered members of EAN. Thus, EAN represents more than 45,000 European neurologists.
Dame Pamela Jean Shaw is a British consultant neurologist and professor of neurology at the University of Sheffield. She is the founder and director of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), and in 2019 was appointed to lead the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre.
Giovanna Rachele Mallucci is van Geest Professor of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge in England and associate director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. She is a specialist in neurodegenerative diseases.
Ted M. Dawson is an American neurologist and neuroscientist. He is the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Director of the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has joint appointments in the Department of Neurology, Neuroscience and Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences.
Pasquale Calabrese born 27 February 1961 in Naples, Italy, is an Italian professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Basel, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences. He is a neuroscientist, experimental neurologist and medical neuropsychologist.
Sonia Gandhi is a British physician and neuroscientist who leads the Francis Crick Institute neurodegeneration laboratory. She holds a joint position at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Her research investigates the molecular mechanisms that give rise to Parkinson's disease. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gandhi was involved with the epidemiological investigations and testing efforts at the Francis Crick Institute.
Selda Ekiz is a Norwegian presenter on NRK and is a trained physicist. She grew up in Sande in Vestfold and her parents immigrated from Turkey in the 1970s.
Christine Klein is a German physician who is a professor of neurology and neurogenetics at the University of Lübeck. Her research considers the molecular genetics of movement disorders. She is a Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology, former President of the German Neurological Society and incoming President of the European Section of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.