3^rd International Conference on Pediatric and Child Neurology October 02-03, 2023 Frankfurt, Germany

Dr. Athanasios K. Petridis is an Associate Professor of the Department of Neurosurgery in University of Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He is also a Co-Director of the Spine Fellowship Program of AO Spine. He completed his Postdoc in the field of CNS-Regeneration from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York. Dr. Petridis research interest is CNS-Regeneration, Stem cell regeneration and neurosurgical papers.

Dr. Petridis research interest is CNS-Regeneration, Stem cell regeneration and neurosurgical papers.

Dr. Hiroshi Nakanishi is currently a Professor of Departmet of Aging Science and Pharmacology, Faculty of Dental Science, Kyushu University. He completed his PhD in Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University and his post-doctoral training at Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, the University of Tennessee at Memphis. He became an Associate Professor at Department of Pharmacology in 1999, and a Professor of Laboratory of Oral Aging Science, Faculty of Dental Science, Kyushu University in 2000. He was the Dean of Faculty of Dental Science, Kyushu University from 2011 to 2013. His reserach is focusing on the physiological and pathological functions of microglia in the central nervous system.

Dr. Nakanishi’s research interest includes: (1) Roles of microglia in the synaptic plasticity and synaptic reorganization, (2) Roles of microglia in the brain aging, (3) Rols of microglia in the chronic pain, (4) Roles of microglia in Neuropshychiatic disorders including autism.

Dr. Kenneth M. Heilman received his M.D. degree from the University of Virginia in 1963. He was a PGY 1&2 in internal medicine at Cornell University Medical Center-Bellevue Hospital (1963-65). During the Vietnam War he joined the Air Force and was Chief of Medicine at NATO Hospital, Izmir, Turkey (1965-1967). After his service, he took a Neurology residency and fellowship at the Harvard Neurological Unit of Boston City (1967-1970), first with Dr. Denny-Brown and then with Dr. Norman Geschwind. In 1970 he joined the faculty at the University of Florida as an Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973 and Professor in 1975. He received the James E Rooks, Jr. endowed professorship in 1990 and in 1998 was promoted to a Distinguished Professor. In 1977, Dr. Heilman joined the VA faculty, in a part time status, first as a Staff Neurologist and then between 1996 and 2009 as Chief of the Neurology Service. At the VA he is currently a member of the GRECC. Heilman is a clinician, educator and investigator. His expertise as a clinician has been recognized by being listed in multiple editions of the Best Doctors in America, America’s Top Doctors and Who’s Who. In addition to teaching students (medical and psychology), and resident physicians he is director of a Behavioral Neurology-Dementia Post-Doctoral program. This program has trained more than 70 post-doctoral fellows, the majority of who hold academic positions and several of whom are now leaders in academic neurology, neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. Most of Heilman’s research is neurobehavioral, examining brain behavior relationships in health and disease. He is the author or co-author or editor or co-editor of 14 published or ‘in press’ books and more than 500 peer reviewed publications. He has received and continues to receive federal funding (NIH or VA) for about 40 years. He and his coworkers have described several new diseases/disorders and their treatment (e.g., orthostatic tremor). He has demonstrated that right hemisphere injury causes disorders of emotional communication (impaired emotional prosody and facial expressions), as well as defects of sensory attention, action-intention (spatial neglect) and self-awareness (anosognosia). He has helped to better understand disorders of purposeful skilled movements (apraxia) as well as other neurobehavioral disorders such as amnesia, aphasia, agraphia and alexia. Dr. Heilman is a member of many honorary organizations such as Alpha Omega Alpha, Sigma Xi and the Dana Foundation. He has received two Research Foundation Professorships, the Clinical Research Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Florida, College of Medicine. He is a past President of the International Neuropsychology Society (INS) and the Society for Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology (SCBN) and in 2012 they give him their first Lifetime Achievement Award. The INS gave him their “Distinguished Career Award,” SCBN gave him the “Outstanding Achievement Award, ” and the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) give him their “Distinguished Service Award” for his scientific and educational contributions. He was elected to be an Honorary Member of the American Neurological Association, and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). In 2009 the AAN gave him the Wartenberg Lecture Award and he presented the Wartenberg Lecture at the 2009 meeting of the AAN. . His greatest honor, however, has been being married to Patricia, having three wonderful children and three grandchildren.

Dr. Heilman’s research is neurobehavioral, examining brain behavior relationships in health and disease. He is the author or co-author or editor or co-editor of 14 published or ‘in press’ books and more than 500 peer reviewed publications. He has received and continues to receive federal funding (NIH or VA) for about 40 years. He and his coworkers have described several new diseases/disorders and their treatment (e.g., orthostatic tremor). He has demonstrated that right hemisphere injury causes disorders of emotional communication (impaired emotional prosody and facial expressions), as well as defects of sensory attention, action-intention (spatial neglect) and self-awareness (anosognosia). He has helped to better understand disorders of purposeful skilled movements (apraxia) as well as other neurobehavioral disorders such as amnesia, aphasia, agraphia and alexia.

Dr. Nemeroff was born in New York City in 1949 and educated in the New York City Public School System. After graduating from the City College of New York in 1970, he enrolled in graduate school at Northeastern University and received a Masters degree in Biology in 1973. He received his MD and PhD (Neurobiology) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His residency training in psychiatry was conducted at both the University of North Carolina and at Duke University, after which he joined the faculty of Duke University. At Duke he was Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology and Chief of the Division of Biological Psychiatry before relocating in 1991 to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, where he served as the Reunette W. Harris Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences until 2008. In 2009 he joined the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine as the Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He is also a Director of Center on Aging. His research has concentrated on the biological basis of the major neuropsychiatric disorders, including affective disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. His clinical research is focused on the use of genetic, neuroendocrine, neuroimaging and neurochemical methods to comprehensively understand the pathophysiology of depression. In recent years he has uncovered the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate the increased risk for depression in victims of child abuse. He has also contributed to seminal findings in the burgeoning area of research concerning the relationship of depression to cardiovascular disease. Dr. Nemeroff has received numerous honors including the A.E. Bennett Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (1979), the Judith Silver Memorial Young Scientist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1989), both the Kempf Award in Psychobiology (1989) and the Samuel Hibbs Award (1990) from the American Psychiatric Association, and the Gold Medal Award and the Research Prize (1996) from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. In 1993 he was awarded the Edward J. Sachar Award from Columbia University and the Edward A. Strecker Award from The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1997, he was the recipient of the Gerald Klerman Award from the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Disorders Association and the Selo Prize from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. In 1998 he was the recipient of the Research Award in Mood Disorders from the American College of Psychiatrists and in 1999 he received the Bowis Award from the same organization. He was awarded the Menninger Prize in 2000 from the American College of Physicians, the Research Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in 2001, and the Burlingame Prize from the Institute of Living in 2002. In 2006 he received the American Psychiatric Association Research Mentoring Award and Vestermark Award, and in 2008 The Judson Marmor Award for Research. Dr. Nemeroff served as the Editor-in-Chief of Neuropsychopharmacology from 2001-2006. With Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, he is co-Editor of the Textbook of Psychopharmacology, now in its Fourth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Press Inc. He has served on the Mental Health Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Mental Health and the Biomedical Research Council for NASA. He is past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. He served as chair of the APA Committee on Research Training. In 2002 he was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 975 research reports and reviews.

Dr. Nemeroff research has concentrated on the biological basis of the major neuropsychiatric disorders, including affective disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. His clinical research is focused on the use of genetic, neuroendocrine, neuroimaging and neurochemical methods to comprehensively understand the pathophysiology of depression. In recent years he has uncovered the neurobiological mechanisms that mediate the increased risk for depression in victims of child abuse.

Dr. Guangping Gao is the Director of the Gene Therapy Center and Penelope Booth Rockwell Professor in Biomedical Research, UMass Medical School. He received his Bachelor Degree in Medicine from Sichuan University, China, and his Ph.D. in molecular genetics at Florida International University with his work on discovering the human aspartoacylase gene and the genetic mutations responsible for Canavan disease. Dr. Gao joined the Institute for Human Gene Therapy (IHGT) at University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and served as the Director of Vector Program of IHGT to oversee the vector discovery, process development, vector manufacturing and QC testing. One of his most important contributions to the field of gene therapy is the discovery of a novel family highly efficient and safe AAV vectors. His primary research interests include molecular mechanisms of AAV evolution, microRNA functional genomics in adult mammals, biology and clinical application of miRNA therapeutics, and gene therapy of CNS disorders using rAAVs to cross BBB for global CNS gene transfer. He has published more than 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has 26 patented inventions. Dr. Gao served on several international committees for gene therapy. He is the senior editor of the Book Series on Gene and Cell Therapy publishing by ASGCT and Springer Publisher and serves on Advisory Board of Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology.

Dr. Guangping Gao primary research interests include molecular mechanisms of AAV evolution, microRNA functional genomics in adult mammals, biology and clinical application of miRNA therapeutics, and gene therapy of CNS disorders using rAAVs to cross BBB for global CNS gene transfer.

Giulio Maria Pasinetti is the Chief of the Brain Institute Center of Excellence for Novel Approaches to Neurodiagnostics and Neurotherapeutics and is a professor of Neurology, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Pasinetti also serves as the Director of the Basic and Biomedical Research and Training, Geriatric Education and Clinical at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Pasinetti’s research on lifestyle factors and metabolic co-morbidities influencing clinical dementia, neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease has made him one of the top experts in his field. Dr. Pasinetti is the recipient of several academic awards, including the prestigious Zenith and Temple awards from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Nathan W. and Margaret T. Shock Aging Research Foundation Award of the Gerontological Society of America, and the Foundation Queen Sofia of Spain Research Center Award on Alzheimer’s Disease. Most recently, Dr. Pasinetti received The Faculty Council Award for academic excellence at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and The Charles Dana Alliance for Brain Research Award from the Dana Foundation, recognizing productivity and worldwide leadership in his field of expertise. Dr. Pasinetti is the recipient of more than 30 grants and has published over 200 groundbreaking manuscripts.

Dr. Pasinetti research on lifestyle factors and metabolic co-morbidities influencing clinical dementia, neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s disease has made him one of the top experts in his field.

Dr. Fredric Gorin is a board-certified Neurologist and Chair of the Department of Neurology at University of California Davis Health System. He received doctoral training as a neuropharmacologist in computer-based drug design in biophysics and physiology. Over the past decade he have identified and designed novel small-molecule therapies to treat aggressive forms of primary brain cancers such as glioblastomas, neuroblastomas and medulloblastomas, as well as cancers that have spread to the central nervous system. Our research group also researches new drugs for treating the intracranial swelling that often accompanies conditions such as traumatic brain injury and stroke and neuroinflammation causing neuropathic pain.

1. Pre-clinical neurotherapeutic drug development 2. Neuro-oncology particularly cancer initiating "stem-like" cells 3. Hypoxic-ischemic stroke and tumor microenvironments 4. Disorders of the peripheral nervous system 5. Neuropathic pain syndromes 6. Dysautonomias

Dr. Pappolla is currently a Professor appointment with the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston . Dr. Pappolla received his MD degree from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1978. His training includes a PhD Doctorate in Human aging in Barcelona, Spain and medical residencies and fellowships in the USA in Neurology, Anatomic Pathology, Neuropathology and Interventional Pain Medicine (Anesthesia based). This training required 10 additional years of post graduate medical education, all pursued in programs accredited by the American Board of Medical Specialties. Dr. Pappolla holds active board-certifications in 5 disciplines of Medicine (Pain Medicine, Neurology, Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology and Neuropathology). His scientific work includes more than 100 publications and book chapters mostly focusing in neuroscience research. He pioneered the relationship between Alzheimers disease and oxidative stress and cholesterol metabolism with some of his papers reaching over 700 citations in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Pappolla served for over 20 years as a consultant for the National Institutes of Health and a full Professor or Faculty at several medical schools in the USA (New York Medical College, LSU New Orleans, Mount Sinai Medical School in New York City, Medical University of South Carolina, University of Texas) where he taught Neurosciences and Neuropathology to medical students and medical residents for over 20 years. He has also served as Chairman of Neurology and Director of Neurosciences in one of the largest tertiary care centers in Mississippi, till about the time when his practice was disrupted by hurricane Katrina in 2005. He then moved to the University of South Carolina as the Josephine Tucker Professor of Neurology but more recently relocated to Houston, Texas in 2008. Dr. Pappolla's laboratory was among the first to identify evidence of oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease brain. In collaboration with other labs, he conducted groundbreaking research on hypercholesterolemia as an early risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. As a neuropathologist, Dr. Pappolla described several unique neuropathologic lesions including the colloid body of Parkinson's disease (later renamed "pale body" by Gibbs et al) and the ubiquitinated "dot-like inclusions" in aged brains.

Dr. Pappolla's research interest is in the development of treatments for neurological degenerative diseases. He has patented and developed novel neuroprotective agents such as OX-1 (now on phase 2 trial for Friedriech ataxia) and melatonin related analogs for Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Mary F Barbe graduated with a PhD from Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston Salem, NC, in 1987. She then completed a 3-year fellowship under Dr. Pat Levitt at Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Her main research focus is on: 1) mechanisms of injury in musculoskeletal and neural systems in a rat model of work-related musculoskeletal disorder (repetitive strain injury); and 2) developing feasible ways of reinnervating the bladder after denervation using nerve transfer. She has been funded by NIOSH, NIAMS, and NINDS for these projects, and is currently funded by NIAMS and NINDS. Additionally, Dr. Barbe is an Associate Chair of her Department, Director of the MicroCT and Imaging Core and Co-Leader of a basic science core for Animal models, Behavioral Testing.

Dr. Mary F Barbe research interests are a) inflammatory and fibrogenic cytokines and chemokines in nerve and musculoskeletal tissues after injury. b) repair mechanisms after nerve and spinal root injury, with a focus on surgical means of repair that are confirmed using behavioral, neurotract tracing and eletrophysiological measurements.

Prof. Calabrese obtained his PhD in Psychology and a medical habilitation degree in experimental neurology (MDhabil) and medical neuropsychology at the University of Bochum (Germany). He has received his undergraduate degree in Psychology and Biology at the University of Konstanz (Germany) as well as preclinical medicine at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). He is also trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and holds an european diploma in preventive medicine. In 1995 Dr. Calabrese was nominated as head of Department of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology and head of the memory clinic at the University Hospital of Bochum (Germany). Since 2011, Dr. Calabrese is professor at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel/Switzerland (Division of molecular and cognitive neuroscience). He has also served as head of the Dept. of Neuropsychology and behavioral Neurology at the neurocenter of southern switzerland. He is also lecturer for neurosciences and neurodegenerative disease in the preventive medicine branch of the Dresden International University (DIU). His research focus is in the field of diagnosis and treatmentof neuropsychological and behavioral disturbances in neuropsychiatric patients (with a focus on PD, AD and MS). He is involved in the conceptualization of several clinical trails in the field of behavioral neurology and psychiatry. Prof. Calabrese is member and board member of various professional and scientific societies and also member of Editorial boards of national and international Journals. He has authored and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers, edited and co-edited 10 books on cognitive disorders as well as over 80 book chapters and invited reviews. He also authored and co-authored several psychometric tests on cognitive and behavioural disturbances in brain-damaged subjects. In 2011 Prof. Calabrese and his coworkers received the Geriatric Brain-Science

Prof. Calabrese research focus is in the field of diagnosis and treatmentof neuropsychological and behavioral disturbances in neuropsychiatric patients (with a focus on PD, AD and MS). He is involved in the conceptualization of several clinical trails in the field of behavioral neurology and psychiatry.

Dr. Souvik Sen is a Professor and Chair of the Neurology Department. He joined University of South Carolina School of Medicine faculty member in January, 2010. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Center of Economic Excellence Stroke Chair in South Carolina. Before his appointment at USC Dr. Sen served as the founding director of the UNC Hospital Stroke Center since July, 2002. Dr. Sen earned a doctor of medicine from University of Calcutta R. G. Kar Medical College, Calcutta, India. After completing medical training in India, he completed a Masters in Science in Cardiovascular Pharmacology in Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He then completed a medical internship at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan. He completed a neurology residency at the Temple University Health Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a vascular neurology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. After his fellowship he served as the co-director and subsequently as the director of the stroke center at the NJ Neuroscience Institute in Edison, New Jersey. He then served as the founding director of the UNC Stroke Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. While there he completed a Masters in Public Health with Epidemiology major. He is board certified in neurology, and subspecialty board certified in Vascular Neurology. Dr. Sen has published in peer reviewed journals including Circulation, Stroke and the New England Journal of Medicine. He has received research funding from the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health. In 2004, he was nominated as a Fellow of the American Heart Association. He serves on several national and international committees. His specific research interests include acute stroke treatment, stroke and TIA pathophysiology, stroke prevention and epidemiology.

Neurology and Stroke

Dr. Mahmut Safak is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Neuroscience, Temple University School of Medicine Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA. He completed his Ph.D work in the laboratory of Dr. Kamel Khalili at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, Philadelphia in 1998, focusing on the molecular characterization of one of the JC virus isolates, Phila-1. He also did his postdoctoral work at the laboratory of Dr. Kamel Khalili. During his postdoctoral years, he characterized many viral/host protein interactions and investigated the relevance of these interactions to JC virus life cycle. His lab is one of the leading labs in JC virus biology and investigation of the agnoprotein function. He extensively published in the field of polyomviruses. These include research articles, reviews, and book chapters. He is a member of many scientific societies.

Understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of human polyoma JC virus life cycle. Understanding of the functional roles of JC virus regulatory Agnoprotein in viral replication cycle. Investigation of the essential role of polyomavirus small tumor antigen in cell transformation. Developing novel therapeutic strategies against agnoprotein dimerization domain to inhibit its function during the viral replication cycle. Identification and characterization of agnoprotein partners in host cells and investigation of their roles in JC virus replication cycle