Neurology

Scientific Committee

Ashley Bush

Ashley Bush

Melbourne Dementia Research Centre
The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
University of Melbourn
Victoria, Australia
Diego Centonze

Diego Centonze

University of Rome . Tor Vergata
Rome, Italy

· Martin O. Savage ·

Martin Savage is Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology at William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London. He was head of the Paediatric Endocrine Unit at Barts and the London School of Medicine from 1982 to 2007. He has interests in growth disorders, specifically those with abnormalities in the GH-IGF-1 axis and in phenotype-genotype relationships of GH-IGF-1 axis defects, notably GH resistance. He published the first human case of an IGF-1 gene defect in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996.  His other interests are Cushing’s syndrome and growth in chronic inflammatory diseases. He was General Secretary of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) from 1997 to 2004. He has lectured in 61 countries and has published 472 original articles, reviews, textbook chapters and books. In 2007, he was awarded the ESPE Andrea Prader Prize for contributions to paediatric endocrinology and in 2018 he received a Visionary Award from the American Human Growth Foundation. In 2022, he received a Research Excellence Award from the Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Journal in Riyadh, and the British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes James M. Tanner Lifetime Achievement Award. He continues to lecture nationally and internationally.

· Ashley Bush ·

Ashley Bush is the Director of the Melbourne Dementia Research Centre and Head of the Oxidation Biology Unit. He has made outstanding contributions to the neuroscience field, most notably his discovery of the importance of metal biology in neurodegenerative brain diseases.  The impact of his work has moved the field of neurodegeneration towards an appreciation for an underlying disturbance in brain metal homeostasis, and has provided insights into the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) as well as other brain diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

His leadership has led to the development of new predictive tests for AD and innovative, potentially disease-modifying strategies based on his research.  He is Chief Scientific Officer for the Cooperative Research Centre for Mental Health (Parkville), and Co-Director of Biomarker Development for The Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing (AIBL). He is Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, and holds courtesy staff appointments in Psychiatry and Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, USA.

· Diego Centonze ·

Diego Centonze is Full Professor of Neurology at the Department of Systems Medicine of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Director of the Unit of Neurology at the IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, Pozzilli (IS), Italy. He also leads the Synaptic Immunopathology Laboratory at Tor Vergata University. His major clinical interest involves the evaluation of new drugs for the treatment of MS. His research interests are related to the role of inflammatory neurodegeneration and synaptic damage in the pathophysiology of Multiple Sclerosis and of its experimental mouse model (EAE).

He is Principal Investigator of many phase II, III and IV national and international trials with new therapeutic agents for MS, AD, PD, narcolepsy, HD, and member of advisory boards of Pharmaceutical Industries for treatment optimization in Multiple Sclerosis. Member of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), of the Italian Neurological Society (SIN), of the Italian Neuroscience Society (SINS), of the Italian Neuroimmunonology Association (AINI) Council, of the Medical Academy of Rome, of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS).

Prof. Centonze is author of around 400 peer-reviewed papers published in international journals of Neuroscience, Neurology and Psychiatry.