University of Pisa, Pisa , Italy

FULL PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY and DIRECTOR of the RESIDENCY PROGRAM in NEUROLOGY at the UNIVERSITY of PISA Medical School, CHAIR OF NEUROLOGY at the AZIENDA OSPEDALIERO UNIVERSITARIA PISANA, Pisa (Italy)

Boston Children's Hospital, Boston , United States

University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven , Belgium

UK Erlangen, Erlangen , Germany

Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide , Australia

Dr Roula Ghaoui (MD, PhD) is an Adult Consultant Neurologist and an Early Career Research Fellow at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) in South Australia. She has set up a neuromuscular and neurogenetics service receiving referrals from around South Australia. She is a Chief investigator on several clinical trials investigating treatments for the mitochondrial and inflammatory myopathies. Dr Ghaoui has been on several medical advisory board panels for the treatment of rare disease including adults with spinal muscular atrophy and Pompe disease. She is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Brain Foundation and a member of the Clinical Trials and Research Committee of the Mitochondrial Medical Network in Australia. She had been the state co-lead for the neuromuscular flagship arm of the Australian Genomics Health Alliance project (AGHA). Her clinical and research interests are in the diagnosis and management of the limb-girdle muscular dystrophies.

UAB, Birmingham , United States

Dr. Muthukumar Karuppasamy (Muthu) is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Alexander Neuromuscular Disease Research Lab (Dr. Matthew Alexander) in the Department of Pediatrics, UAB. Muthu focuses on the generation and characterization of novel animal models and drug repurposing based drug discovery for neuromuscular disorders. He completed his Bachelors in Pharmacy at RVS College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Coimbatore, India), Masters in Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry from the Birla Institute of Technology (Ranchi, India), and Doctorate in Drug Discovery and Pharmacology at the Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore (NUS). Muthu worked in the academic research institutions and pharma/biotech industries in India and abroad for more than 5 years. When he is not in the lab, he spends time with his daughters and participates in community outreach and volunteering activities. Muthu hopes to support the WMS scientific community through sustainability committee membership and hone organizational and networking skills in his new role in WMS.

Université Libre de Bruxelles - Hôpital Erasme, Brussels , Belgium