Meet the instructors

BASSEM YAMOUT

Professor of Clinical Neurology. Director, Neurology Institute
American University of Beirut, Harley Street Medical Center Abu Dhabi

Bassem Yamout is currently a Professor of Clinical Neurology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center and the Director of the Neurology Institute at Harley Street Medical Center. He is also the Head of the MS Center of the same institute in Abu Dhabi.

Prof. Yamout graduated from medical school at the American University of Beirut in 1984, received his training in neurology at the University of Cincinnati-Ohio followed by a fellowship at the Montreal Neurological Institute-McGill University. In 1988, he joined the Faculty of the American University of Beirut.

His main focus of research is in the field of multiple sclerosis. He is currently the President of the MENACTRIMS, Head of Clinical Research at the Multiple Sclerosis Center, a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, and a member of multiple regional and international MS advisory boards.
Prof. Yamout is one of the leading experts on multiple sclerosis in the Middle East and Arab region with recent research on epidemiology of the disease in the region, quality of life of patients in the Middle East, novel therapies such as stem cell transplantation and venous stenosis, and the impact of wars on the course of multiple sclerosis. In addition, he is currently the principal investigator on several ongoing international multiple sclerosis research trials.

He has authored many research and review papers and is currently the Chief Editor of the MS newsletter “MS Today”, and on the editorial board of “Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.”

MAURA PUGLIATTI

Professor Neurology at University of Ferrara

Maura PUGLIATTI, MD, PhD is Full Professor of Neurology at the University of Ferrara, Director of the University Hospital Unit of Clinical Neurology, S. Anna Hospital, Ferrara, Italy. She is also Director of the Residency School of Neurology at the same University.

In 2007 she took a PhD and in 2007-10 was Research Fellow at the Dept. of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Norway, actively coordinating a large multi-center case-control study on multiple sclerosis and environmental risk factors. Since 2011 she is Adjunct Professor at the Dept. of Clinical Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada within collaborative research in MS epidemiology. She has been Visiting Professor at the University of Bergen (Erasmus Teaching Staff Mobility program to medical students, 2010-12), University of Belgrade, Serbia (to PhD student, 2015), and has been a faculty member of the PhD School in at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj Napoca, Romania, since 2016.

In 2008-14 she was Chair of the EFNS Scientist Panel of Neuroepidemiology and Public Health, and has co-chaired the same Panel for the European Academy of Neurology in 2015-18. She is a member of ParadigMS Foundation founders.

Her main research areas are multiple sclerosis, epidemiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, through collaborative research at national and international level. She is author of 137 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, has a total impact factor > 500 and H-index=37.

CELIA OREJA-GUEVARA

Vice Chair of Neurology and Head of Multiple Sclerosis Center at University Hospital San Carlos, Madrid

Professor Celia Oreja-Guevara is Vice Chair of Neurology and Head of Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University Hospital San Carlos, Madrid and Professor of Neurology at the University Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
After receiving her MD from the University Complutense, Madrid, Professor Oreja-Guevara completed a PhD in neuroimmunology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurobiology, University of Munich, Munich (Germany).

She then went on to complete a residency in the Department of Neurology at the University of Bochum, Bochum (Germany) and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroimaging at the University Hospital San Raffaele, Milan (Italy). She has also held posts at the University of Düsseldorf (Germany),Hospital de Fuenlabrada and at the University Hospital La Paz, both in Madrid.
Professor Oreja-Guevara’s research interests centre on clinical and neuroimaging correlations in MS and the use of optical coherence tomography. Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is among her other therapy areas of interest, and Professor Oreja-Guevara is actively involved in the evaluation of new drugs for the treatment of MS and NMO.

As an investigator, she has participated in a number of MS clinical trials and currently heads the Neuroimaging Group of the Spanish Neurological Society, and she is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Academy of Neurology. Currently, Professor Oreja-Guevara is an expert for the Spanish Medicines Agency and for the Scientific Advisory Group on Neurology of the European Medicines Agency.