Autoimmune Encephalopathy Secondary to Infectious Disease- CLOSED

Amiram Katz, a Board-Certified Neurologist, practices at MedAhead Inc. where he sees patients with protracted tick-borne diseases among other neurologically compromised patients. He was recently recognized by Marquis Who’s & Who Top Doctors for dedication, achievements, and leadership in neurology. Dr. Katz attended the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, where he earned an MD in 1976 with Magna Cum Laude. He went on to complete a residency in Internal Medicine at Sheba Medical Center in 1980, a residency in Neurology at Tel Aviv Medical Center in 1984, a fellowship in medical hypnosis at the University of Haifa in 1985, a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology at the Cleveland Clinic in 1988 and a fellowship in Clinical Epilepsy at the Yale School of Medicine in 1989. Dr. Katz additionally holds numerous certifications in his field, including an Israeli specialist’s Certificate in Neurology, which he earned in 1985 and American Board certification of Psychiatry and Neurology he earned in 1992. He was certified as a Diving Medical Officer in 1976 and a Medical Officer with the Israeli Academy of Military Medicine. He is in solo practice with MedAhead, Inc., in Orange, Connecticut since 2004. Dr. Katz has been the president of this company since 1995 and has also been a consulting neurologist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine from 1993 to 2013. He was a partner in Neurology Associates of Norwalk PC, from 1993 to 2002. During those years he served as the Medical Director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut. From 1993 to 2002, Dr. Katz was the Director of the Epilepsy Center, Co-Director of Diving Medicine and Associate Director of Sleep Medicine – all at Norwalk Hospital. From 1996 to 1998, he served as the medical director of Telemedicine Consultants America, LLC. In recognition of his accomplishments in his field, Dr. Katz has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He won the Merritt Putnam Fellowship of the American Foundation in Epilepsy in 1988, the William Gowers Epilepsy Fellowship of Abbott Pharmaceuticals in 1989 and the Hans Berger Epilepsy Fellowship of the American EEG Society in 1990. From 2002 to 2014, he was listed among the Top Doctors in the New York Metro Area with Castle Connolly, and in 2010 and 2013 he was named Most Compassionate Doctor by Patients’ Choice. In 2008, 2010, and 2012, he was awarded Best Doctor by Patients’ Choice, among myriad further accolades. In 2016 he opened a new Company, DK Electronics, LLC, to promote an FDA approved medical device he invented – FlowKeepers® – that helps prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). In the past 5 years Dr, Katz ran an IRB approved clinical trial examining the safety and efficacy of intra thecal Immunoglobulin administration to patients with Alzheimer’s disease. A treatment that shows promise in a variety of neuroinflammatory conditions. In the coming years, he intends to experience continued growth and success with his medical device, his research and clinical trials.

Gary Kaplan, DO, is the founder and medical director of the Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine, and author of Total Recovery: A Revolutionary New Approach to Breaking the Cycle of Pain and Depression (Rodale, 2014). A pioneer and leader in the field of integrative medicine, Dr. Kaplan is one of only 19 physicians in the country to be board-certified in both Family Medicine and Pain Medicine . A clinical associate professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Kaplan was one of the directors of a $1.7 million NIH grant that funded an educational initiative to incorporate complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine into Georgetown’s medical curriculum.

Dr. Bellanti is Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology and Director of the International Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Immunology (ICISI) at Georgetown University Medical Center. A native of Buffalo New York, he received his MD degree from the University of Buffalo, followed by residency training at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, post-doctoral training in developmental immunology at the University of Florida School of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, and viral immunology at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Washington, DC. Following military service, he was recruited at Georgetown University School of medicine as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology. Dr Bellanti’s career at Georgetown represents the “triple threat” academician, proficient in teaching, research, and patient care. His investigative efforts have focused on antimicrobial research, evaluation of new vaccine strategies and developmental immunology. This work resulted in a succession of seminal research contributions including the characterization of the IgM response of the newborn, the identification of the antiviral role of secretory IgA in respiratory secretions and the cellular immune responses to viral infections following immunization or natural infection. Soon after arriving at Georgetown, he established and became the Director of ICISI in 1975. The unique interdisciplinary strengths of the Center led to the successful award of numerous federal and private research grants, including an NIH-supported postdoctoral training program that facilitated the training of over 250 national and international postdoctoral fellows. The alumni from this program now hold leadership positions at major academic and research institutions in the US and throughout the worl Dr. Bellanti is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics, for outstanding scientific contributions, the Humanitarian Award from the American College of Allergists for “excellence and service and teaching of clinical immunology”, the Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award from the State University of Buffalo, New York and the Founder’s Day Award of Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is also the recipient of Honoris Causa degrees from the University of Palermo, Italy, Georgetown University and recently, the CEA Universidad San Pablo, Madrid, Spain. Dr. Bellanti has also held numerous leadership positions in national and international organizations including President, Society for Pediatric Research, President, American Board of Allergy and Immunology, President, INTERASMA, President, the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), President, the Association of Medical Laboratory Immunologists (AMLI), and President, the American Association of Certified Allergists (ACA). Other roles include Editor-in-Chief of several journals including Pediatric Research, Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, and Allergy and Asthma Proceedings. In each of these positions, Dr. Bellanti has served with distinction and has earned the respect and esteem of his colleagues nationally and internationally. Dr. Bellanti has published over 500 scientific articles and abstracts, as well as numerous textbook chapters and his widely acclaimed textbook in immunology. “Immunology IV: Clinical Applications in Health and Disease” which has been recently been translated to a Spanish edition, “INMUNOLOGÍA IV: Aplicaciones Clínicas en Salud y Enfermedad”.

Brian Fallon, MD, MPH directs the Lyme & Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Center for Neuroinflammatory and Somatic Disorders at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. As professor of clinical psychiatry, he has focused his research on Lyme disease and on clinical trials, particularly on how to help patients with persistent symptoms. His book co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Sotsky, “Conquering Lyme Disease: Science bridges the Great Divide”, was published by Columbia University Press in 2018.

Dr. Patterson received his undergraduate training in molecular biology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He then went on to Northwestern University Medical School for training in medicine. During the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Patterson began investigating cellular reservoirs of HIV-1 using molecular and in situ technology patented in his laboratory. Dr. Patterson went on to a residency in Pathology focusing on viral pathogenesis. While in his residency, Dr. Patterson determined that enough HIV virus was present in infected individuals to account for the massive destruction of the immune system. This paradigm altering work was published in Science in 1993. Dr. Patterson later was named Chief Resident of Pathology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Patterson has authored over 100 manuscripts and book chapters and he continues his work on HIV-1 pathogenesis and reservoirs at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Patterson was the Medical Director of Diagnostic Virology at Stanford University Hospitals and Clinics.

Calli received her B.Sc. from Imperial College London in 2005 (Forbes Memorial Medal Winner for Excellence in Biology), focusing on Immunology and Genetics. To further develop her interdisciplinary interest she joined the Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (Cambridge Institute for Medical Research) to obtain a Ph.D. under the supervision of Profs Linda Wicker and John Todd, having been awarded a Wellcome Trust studentship in Infection and Immunity. This work culminated in a seminal study showing that the immunological consequences of genome-wide association data can be dissected to inform our understanding of disease mechanisms. After completing her degree in 2009 she joined the laboratory of Prof Lars Fugger as a postdoctoral researcher to investigate how the data explosion arising from advances in genomics can be converted into clinically relevant information - in particular through comparative analyses across different diseases. To date this has led to the first study demonstrating that elucidating the functional impact of disease-associated genetic variation can have important implications for predicting clinical outcome. Calli has also won the Thomas Willis Early Career Researcher Prize in 2013 and the Oxford Multiple Sclerosis Young Investigator Award in 2014. ​ In 2017 Calli moved to the Henry Wellcome Building of Genomic Medicine to begin her career as a PI. The key research interests of her group are to better understand the architecture of genetic predisposition across different autoimmune and immune-mediated diseases, and to explore the functional relevance and potential clinical utility of such cross-comparisons.

Craig Shimasaki is co-founder and CEO of Moleculera labs, a neuroimmunology precision medicine company focused on identifying underlying roots of neurologic, psychiatric, and behavioral disorders triggered by an autoimmune response. The company’s blood testing panel is based on research from Dr. Madeleine Cunningham’s laboratory at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Moleculera Labs is focused on discovering biological targets, and developing tests and treatments for infection-triggered autoimmune conditions that result in chronic and debilitating disorders of the brain, heart and immune system. Shimasaki started his career at Genentech and has been in the biotechnology industry for over 35 years. As a scientist his work spans all stages of research and development from bench to bedside. His research included epitope mapping for an HIV vaccine, genetic breast cancer risk prediction biomarkers, a rapid influenza diagnostic, and therapeutics for infectious diseases, neuropsychiatric disorders, and noise induced hearing loss. As and businessperson, he co-founded multiple companies and led multiple products through the FDA approval process and is a co-inventor on multiple patents. Shimasaki received his BS in Biochemistry from University of California at Davis, his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Tulsa, and his MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Business. He an Adjunct Professor at the University of Oklahoma, Price School of Business and teaches biotechnology entrepreneurship. He has written and edited multiple books on Biotechnology Entrepreneurship. His passion is to help translate scientific and medical discoveries into acutely needed products so that more patients can live healthier lives.

Hakima Amri is Professor of Biochemistry and Physiology at Georgetown University in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology. She completed her undergraduate education in Developmental Biology at the University of Constantine, Algeria and her graduate studies at Pierre and Marie Curie-Sorbonne University, in Paris, France. There, she earned a Master’s of Science degree in Reproductive Biology and a Ph.D. in Steroid Biochemistry. After moving to the United States, she joined the Georgetown University Faculty where she co-founded the Integrative Medicine educational initiative. Dr. Amri’s research focuses on understanding the action mechanism of disease processes using comprehensive systems biology approaches. She investigates changes of biomarkers profiles from healthy to disease states and identifies bio-signatures using big data. Her research is enhanced by a novel analytical approach she recently developed in collaboration with her colleagues. This novel method translates omics data– from genomics, proteomics and metabolomics high throughput analysis into molecular signatures that are presented in a multidimensional, dynamic model highly suited for precision medicine. Dr. Amri is currently engaged in converting this method into a cost effective and noninvasive diagnostic tool. Her work is supported by a patent granted by the United States Patents Office. As the lead inventor of the technology and a co-founder of the newly launched Start Up, Valor Diagnostics, Dr. Amri serves as the Chief Science Officer.

Dr. Harald Heidecke, PhD, studied Chemistry at the Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg and Pharmacy at the Free University Berlin. He wrote his PhD thesis in pharmaceutical biochemistry at the Free University Berlin. In 1998 he founded the CellTrend GmbH and is this then the owner and chief executive officer (CEO) of CellTrend. The main focus of CellTrend is the determination of antibodies against G-Protein-Coupled-Receptors (GPCR). CellTrend has a Quality managment system. CellTrend is strictly adhere to the rules of Good Manufacture Practice (GMP, FDA). Harald Heidecke is the inventor of sixteen patents and has published 36 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Ochoa-Repáraz received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Cellular and Molecular Biology Program) from the University of Navarra in Spain. He was trained as a postdoctoral scientist at Montana State University and Dartmouth College, exploring the impact of the gut mucosal immune responses to microbes on CNS inflammatory demyelination. At Dartmouth College, he studied mechanisms of immunomodulation induced by gut symbionts and polysaccharide A (PSA) produced by Bacteroides fragilis in the context of multiple sclerosis (MS) using animal models of the disease. He has industry experience working for a large pharmaceutical company as a scientific member of their MS platform. As a faculty at EWU, he continues working on the reciprocal interaction between the gut microbiome and disease, with a specific focus on immunomodulation mediated by gut microbes and microbiome-modifying treatments in CNS demyelinating inflammation

Dr. Jonathan (Jony) Kipnis is BJC Investigator, Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology and Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery at Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine. He is also an inaugural Director of Center for Brain immunology and Glia (BIG) at Washington University. Jony graduated from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he was a Sir Charles Clore scholar and a recipient of distinguished prize for scientific achievements awarded by the Israeli Parliament, The Knesset. Kipnis lab focuses on the complex interactions between the immune system and the central nervous system (CNS). The goal is to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying these interactions in neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental, and mental disorders as well as in physiology (including healthy aging). They showed that the brain function is dependent, in part, on the function and integrity of the immune system and that immune molecules (cytokines) can play neuromodulatory roles. The fascination with immunity and its role in neurophysiology is what brought the team to a breakthrough discovery of meningeal lymphatic vessels that drain the CNS into the peripheral lymph nodes and thus serve as a physical connection between the brain and the immune system. This finding challenged the prevailing dogma of CNS being an “immune privileged organ” and opened new avenues to mechanistically study the nature of neuroimmune interactions under physiological and pathological conditions. The implications of this work are broad and range from Autism to Alzheimer’s disease through neuroinflammatory conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis. Among other awards, Dr. Kipnis is a recipient NIH Director’s Pioneer award for 2018 to explore in more depth neuro-immune interactions in healthy and diseased brain.

Kim Lewis is a University Distinguished Professor and Director, Antimicrobial Discovery Center at Northeastern University in Boston, a Fellow of the American Society of Microbiology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Moscow University, and has been on the Faculty of MIT, University of Maryland, and Tufts University prior to coming to Northeastern. Dr. Lewis is a recipient of the NIH Director’s Transformative Award and is a Clarivate highly cited researcher. He works on mechanisms of antibiotic tolerance and antibiotic discovery.

Dr. Opp is Professor of physiology and Director of the Sleep and Inflammation Laboratory in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB). He received his PhD in Zoology from Washington State University 1987, and after post-doctoral training at the University of Tennessee Memphis, he obtained an Assistant Professor faculty appointment in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX. He was appointed Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; served as Vice Chair for Basic Research and Director of Grants Administration in the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA; and just completed a term as Chair of the Department of Integrative Physiology at UCB. Dr. Opp’s research programs aim to elucidate sleep-immune interactions, specifically the role of chronic insufficient sleep in inflammatory disease. Current projects use mouse models to determine mechanisms by which sleep disruption contributes to sequelae of traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis, and to the etiology of musculoskeletal pain. Dr. Opp has been continuously funded by NIH for more than 30 years; has published more than 120 peer-reviewed primary data papers; and has mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, interns and residents. Dr. Opp’s contributions to the field include serving as president of the Sleep Research Society and president of the PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society. In addition, he was the founding chair of the first Gordon Conference of Sleep Regulation and Function, and the founding editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Neurobiology of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms.

Dr. Robert C. Bransfield, MD, DLFAPA is a graduate of Rutgers College and the George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his psychiatric residency training at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry and is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Bransfield’s primary activity is an office based private practice of psychiatry. In addition, Dr Bransfield is the Past President of ILADS, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Educational Foundation and the New Jersey Psychiatric Association. He has held a number of administrative positions with organizations involved with health, mental health and community related activities. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers—Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr Bransfield has authored and co-authored a number of publications in peer-reviewed literature, other medical publications and books; has been active in political advocacy on an international, national, state and local level

Ru-Rong Ji, PhD, is the chief of pain research within Duke Anesthesiology, co-director of the Center for Translational Pain Medicine, and a professor of anesthesiology and neurobiology. As director of the Sensory Plasticity and Pain Research Laboratory at Duke, his research focuses on molecular and cellular mechanisms of chronic pain, such asinflammatory pain, neuropathic pain, and cancer pain. He is internationally-recognized for his contributions to demonstrating critical roles of MAP kinase signaling pathways and glial cells in the pathogenesis of chronic pain. His recent work has demonstrated powerful antinociceptive actions of pro-resolution lipid mediators (e.g., resolvins). Ji lectures internationally and reviews papers for numerous international journals. He also serves on National Institutes of Health review panels and the editorial boards of Pain, Neuroscience, and Neuroscience Bulletin. He previously was an associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, before joining the Duke faculty in 2012. He earned a PhD in neurobiology at Shanghai Institute of Physiology and completed postdoctoral training at Peking (Beijing) University Medical School, Karolinska Institute, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Dr. Swedo received her B.A. degree from Augustana College in 1977 and her M.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1980. Shortly after completing a residency in pediatrics at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Swedo was named Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University. The following year, she moved to Washington D.C. and became a senior staff fellow in the Child Psychiatry Branch, NIMH. Dr. Swedo was granted tenure in 1992, became Head of the Section on Behavioral Pediatrics in 1994, and Chief of the Pediatrics and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch in 1998. She also served as the Acting Scientific Director for NIMH from 1995 through 1998. Dr. Swedo recently received the Joel Elkes International Research Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Her laboratory studies childhood-onset obsessive compulsive disorder and related disorders, including Tourette syndrome and Sydenham chorea.

Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld is the founder and head of the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, at the Sheba Medical Center, which is affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in Tel-Aviv University in Israel. Professor Shoenfeld’s clinical and scientific works focus on autoimmune and rheumatic diseases, and he has published more than 1750 papers in journals such as New Eng J Med, Nature, The Lancet, Proc Nat Acad Scie, J Clin Invest, J Immunol, Blood, FASEB, J Exp Med, Circulation, Cancer and others. Professor Shoenfeld is on the editorial boards of 43 journals in the fields of rheumatology and autoimmunity and is the founder and the editor of the IMAJ (Israel Medical Association Journal), the representative journal of science and medicine in the English language in Israel, and also is the founder and Editor of Autoimmunity Reviews (Elsevier) (Impact factor 7.9) and co-Editor of the Journal of Autoimmunity (Impact factor 8). For the past twenty years Yehuda has been the Editor of “Harefuah” – The Israel Journal in Medicine (Hebrew). Professor Shoenfeld received the EULAR prize in 2005, in Vienna, Austria. In UC Davis, USA, Professor Shoenfeld received the Nelson’s Prize for Humanity and Science for 2008. He was recently awarded a Life Contribution Prize in Internal Medicine in Israel, 2012 as well as the ACR Master Award in 2013.