Prof. Dimitrios Karussis, was born in Thessaloniki, Greece on 7-8-1962. He graduated from Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Medical school in 1986 with excellency. Since 1988 he moved and lives in Jerusalem, Israel. He completed at Hadassah his Neurology specialization and his PhD degree. Since 2007 he is the Chairman of the Neuroimmunology Unit and MS Center at Hadassah and the MS/EAE neuroimmunology laboratory. Prof. Karussis has published more than 150 peer reviewed scientific papers, mostly in the field of neuroimmunology and stem cells. He has delivered more than 250 invited plenary lectures and served as chairman in tens of European and world congresses in the field of Neuroimmunology. He serves as ad-hoc reviewer and as member of the editorial board in many major journals. He has been for 6 years a member of the Executive Committee of the ECTRIMS. Prof. Karussis has pioneered the studies with Linomide and with bone marrow and mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in MS. He is considered one of the world experts in the field of clinical applications of stem cells in neurological diseases. In 2013 he received the academic degree of full Professor of Neurology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 2010 to 2021, Prof Karussis served as the elected President of the Israeli Neuroimmunological society and has organized several International meetings in this field. He has hosted and was President of the World congress of Neuroimmunology in 2016 in Jerusalem.

Prof. Binod K. Khaitan is working at the premier academic institution ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, New Delhi. He has more than 180 publications including over 135 papers in journals, over 40 chapters in various books and monographs, and the two books he has co-authored, ‘Drugs for Vitiligo’ and ‘Clinical Methods in Dermatology and Venereology’. He was the Associate Editor of the book series ‘Current Literature Dermatology’ for seven years. His fields of interest include vitiligo, vesiculobullous diseases, dermato-therapeutics including pulse therapy & oral mini-pulse therapy, descriptive dermatology, and clinical immunology among others. He is associated with identification of two clinical entities “Frictional sweat dermatitis” and “Photosensitive spongiotic/lichenoid eruption (PSLE) of papules and plaques”. He brought about a paradigm shift by introducing evidence-based use of oral mini-pulse therapy in vitiligo and also defined various aspects of segmental vitiligo. He was honored with several prestigious awards in the specialty including: • Dr. BM Ambadi Oration by IADVL • Fellow of the International Medical Sciences Academy • Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS) • Dr. LK Bhutani Award for teaching and research by IADVL • President Appreciation Award by IADVL • Dr. JC Shroff Memorial Award 2022 by IADVL.

George Kitas MD, PhD, FRCP qualified in Greece, pursued PhD studies followed by clinical training in Birmingham, UK and is/has been Head of Rheumatology, Clinical Director, R&D Director and Deputy Medical Director at the Dudley Group NHS FT (Teaching), Professor of Clinical Rheumatology at Manchester, of Behavioural Rheumatology at Birmingham and of Rheumatology, Musculoskeletal Health and Exercise at Wolverhampton Universities, and from 2011 Director of Rheumatology at “Hygeia” Hospital and Visiting Professor in Greece. He is Chief Editor of the MJR, reviewer for >50 journals, and evaluator for funding bodies and the quality assessment agencies for higher education and research of 8 countries. He leads the “Rheumatoid Arthritis Co-morbidity Research Group”, has supervised >20 MDs and PhDs and has authored >500 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters (current h index 85, >30000 citations). He has been granted several awards, including the Academy of Athens Prize, bronze and silver Clinical Excellence Awards in the UK, honorary doctorates at the Universities of Thessaly and Patras and Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece, the “Boland” Visiting Professorship of Rheumatology at the Mayo Clinic Medical School, USA and the “Skou” Honorary Professorship at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

08.2020- now The Head of the Central Lab, NIGRIR