MS under the microscope
Sun 11.00 - 12.00 (H1)
Biography: Dr. Sandra Amor (with Prof. Paul van der Valk)
Pathology Department, VU Medical Centre, The Netherlands
Ph.D. with honours in Pathology (London
University. Her thesis on tropical virus
infections of the central nervous system
in the Rayne Institute at St. Thomas´s
Hospital with Professor Hugh Webb
led her into autoimmunity and MS. Her
main research was the study of the
mechanisms underlying demyelinating
and neurodegenerative disorders to
aid the development of therapeutic
strategies, particularly for MS.
Her research extends across virology,
immunology, and neurosciences, with
major contributions to the fields of
myelin biology and neuroinflammation.
Instrumental in establishing novel research tools to develop fresh therapeutic approaches, she has received two internationally recognised awards. Her MOG-model of chronic neurological disease and recently autoimmuneinduced neuronal damage is widely used.
She was the first foreign scientist to be awarded a Senior Fellowship award by the Dutch MS Society. She joined the Pathology Department at VU University, Amsterdam to gain more experience, developing her research in MS using human tissues, and developed mouse models to reflect the neurodegenerative aspects of MS.
A well-recognised international scientist who has published more than 90 works, she sits on scientific review boards, journal and grant review committees.
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.
