CONVENERS

Robert P. Friedland, MD - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th EDITIONS CONVENER - Dr Friedland is a clinical and research neurologist devoted to the study of brain disorders associated with aging.  He is a graduate of the City College of New York and was a student at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine in Lexington, KY before graduating from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City in 1973.  He completed his neurology residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital and from 1977-1978 was a Fellow in dementia and aging under Dr. Robert Katzman at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY.  He then worked at the University of California, Davis, and in the Research Medicine Group of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University California, Berkeley where he served as Chief Neurologist.  From 1985 to 1990 he was Deputy Clinical Director and Chief of the Section on Brain Aging and Dementia of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health of Bethesda, MD.  At Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine he was Professor of Neurology, Radiology and Psychiatry and Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogeriatrics from 1990 to 2008. In December of 2008 he joined the faculty of the University of Louisville, School of Medicine, as the Mason and Mary Rudd Chair and Professor of Neurology. 

Dr. Friedland’s work has focused on clinical and biological issues in Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.   He was the first to document patterns of abnormal brain metabolism and cerebral blood flow in the disease using positron emission and single photon emission computed tomography.  He also contributed the initial studies of magnetic resonance imaging in dementia.  The first studies of driving behavior in patients with Alzheimer’s disease came from his group at the NIH.   Dr. Friedland has also worked on the patterns of disease occurrence and risk and protective factors, with studies of the Kikuyu in Kenya, Jews and Arabs in Israel, Caucasian and African-American subjects in Ohio and Mexican and European American subjects in Texas.  He has documented a series of important determinants of the disease, including physical and mental inactivity, smoking, obesity, and diet.  This work has focused on interactions of genetic and environmental lifestyle elements.  These studies have led to a National Health Literacy Program working to enhance public awareness about the disease and how lifestyle modifications may influence risk. His group also participated in the discovery of the important Alzheimer’s disease risk factor gene, SORL1.  Animal models have been used by Dr Frieldand and his collaborators to better define the biological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease in order to develop new treatments.  The first demonstration of catalytic antibodies targeting the Alzheimer amyloid Beta protein in the blood was published by his group in 2007. In 2008 Dr Friedland and colleagues reported the first demonstration of a possible interaction involving molecular mimicry between protective anti-amyloid antibodies and exposure to a plant virus.  Current studies are devoted to developing immunological approaches to the treatment of both Alzheimer and Parkinson’s diseases. Dr. Friedland has authored or coauthored over 200 scientific publications and has current research funding from the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging), as well as several Foundations, Institutes, Corporations and Families.  He has had over $1,000,000 of research funding to support his work for every year since 1985.

 

Changiz Geula, PhD - 5th EDITION CONVENER - Dr. Geula is Professor of Neuroscience at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL. He joined Northwestern in 2007 after two decades at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Geula is the Director of the Laboratory for Cognitive and Molecular Morphometry at Northwestern University Medical School. Dr. Geula received his doctorate in Biopsychology/Neuroscience from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Geula’s research interests have focused on the aging of the brain and neurodegenerative disorders which afflict the elderly, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. One line of research pursued in his laboratory concentrates on age-related changes in the nervous system, including changes in amyloid levels and microglia function, which contribute to selective neuronal loss and dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Chris Messis MD - CHAIRMAN, Local Organizing Committee, 1st Edition and 5th Edition - Dr. Messis is consultant neuropsychiatrist at YGIA Polyclinic in Limassol.  He obtained his medical diploma from the University of Athens, Greece in 1960. He specialized in Neurology and Psychiatry between 1961-1968 at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY and subsequently at New York University Medical Center in New York, NY.  After his return to Cyprus he served as president of Limassol Medical Association and vice president of Pancyprian Medical Association between 1978–1997. He was the first president of the Cyprus Neurological Society between 1980-1984. He established the Mediterranean Neurological Society and serves as its president since 2004. Dr. Messis is presently the chairman of the Cyprus Mental Health Commission and the president of the Disciplinary Committee of the Cyprus Medical Association.

His interest in seizures due to hyperglycemia without ketoacidosis resulted in his initial publications in ‘Neurology’ and Lancet. The use of Lithium in bipolar disorder followed. Conflict of interest in the practice of European neurologists and epilepsy and driving were reported in European journals.  His research on Dementia resulted in more publications and a chapter on ‘ethical and legal issues in the care of patients with dementia’ in a recent book by M.Tsolaki. He also wrote a book on the recent history of Medicine in Cyprus. Dr. Messis is still actively involved as a representative of Cyprus in the WFN, EFNS and UEMS.  

 

Marwan Sabbagh, MD - 5th EDITION CONVENER - Dr. Sabbagh is the founding director of the Cleo Roberts Center for Clinical Research. Opened in 2000, the Center, with Dr. Sabbagh as the principle investigator, has conducted more than 30 clinical trials for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, as well as prostate cancer and arthritis. Dr. Sabbagh, a board-certified neurologist, received his medical degree from the University of Arizona. He is also the Associate Director of the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Core Center, a clinical instructor in the Sun Health/St. Joseph's Hospitals Geriatric Fellowship Program, clinical assistant professor of neurosciences at the University of California-San Diego and a visiting scientist in the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale. Dr. Sabbagh served his residency in neurology at Baylor College of Medicine and a fellowship in geriatric neurology and dementia at the UC-SD School of Medicine.