MS under the microscope
Sun 11.00 - 12.00 (H1)
Biography: Prof. Paul van der Valk (with Dr Sandra Amor)
He wrote his thesis on lymphomas while
studying medicine in Leiden. After getting
his Ph.D. in 1982 he started training
in Pathology at the Vrije Universiteit in
Amsterdam later becoming a full staff
member pathologist subspecialising
in neuropathology. He became a
neuropathologist and Professor of
pathology at the VUmc.
His research group on MS, focused
on the changes in the human central
nervous system and the role of growth
factors and cyto- and chemokines
in lesion formation. His work on the
correlation of MRI and pathology, is wellrecognised.
Topics studied by his group
included mitochondrial function in MS
and inflammatory processes, including
meningeal inflammation.
His other research interests are ocular pathology, especially retinoblastoma, and lymphomas.
He is widely published and he has supervised a number of Ph.D. students. He has managerial functions in different societies, including the Dutch Society for Pathology and the Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Abstract
Information on MS usually begins with something like ‘MS is the result of damage to myelin that leads to scars (plaques/lesions) in the brain’. But what actually does this look like inside the brain of someone with MS? In our talk we will show what the damage looks like and how we think the lesions develop in the brain.
One of the most intriguing questions is what comes before an active lesion i.e how does the MS lesion really start? By examining what is happening in an early lesion we can discover how the brain is able to repair itself and discover what causes an early lesion to develop into full blow lesions.
In summary our presentation will describe the different types of lesions seen in the brain of someone with MS and we will speculate how we can use this knowledge to develop new treatments to prevent further damage.
