PROFESSOR MARK ATKINSON, U.S.A, Ph.D., is the American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar for Diabetes Research at the University of Florida. Dr. Atkinson was part of one of the first group of researchers to identify the value of measuring immune responses against GAD in persons with type 1 diabetes. Dr. Atkinson holds positions on a number of scientific advisory boards/research panels including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. His research efforts have resulted in his being one of the five most cited authors in diabetes research as well as his receipt of the highest awards for research accomplishments from the JDRF and ADA.
Professor Atkinson's current research extends to understanding the immunological mechanisms underlying the formation of diabetes, with his primary research goal involving the development of an effective method for preventing and reversing type 1 diabetes. Professor Atkinson has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1997.
PROFESSOR DANIEL KAUFMAN, USA, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California, USA. Professor Kaufman's current research is focused on GAD and its relation to diabetes. In a research paper in November 1993, Professor Kaufman demonstrated that the administration of GAD to mice that would otherwise develop type 1 diabetes prevented the outbreak of this disorder.
Professor Kaufman was the first to clone a GAD gene and his lab was the first to demonstrate that a GAD treatment could inhibit diabetes in mice with established autoimmune responses. Professor Kaufman was a member of the group associated with Professor Allan J. Tobin, which was the first to submit a patent application for the full cDNA code for GAD, the patent portfolio that Diamyd Medical licenses. Dr. Kaufman has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1996.
PROFESSOR LARS KLARESKOG, Sweden, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Rheumatology and Head of the Rheumatology Research Laboratory at the Center for Molecular Medicine at Karolinska University Hospital/Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Klareskog's research is specifically aimed at the origin and treatment of autoimmune disorders. Professor Klareskog has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1996.
PROFESSOR ÅKE LERNMARK, Sweden, Med. D, is the Robert H. Williams Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle in the US. He is also Professor of Experimental Diabetes at Lund University in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the University Hospital MAS in Malmo, Sweden.
Professor Lernmark focused his research on diabetes and at an early stage identified the antigen that later proved to be GAD. He and his colleagues were the first to clone GAD65 from human islets using biochemical methods, and was thus the first to define antibodies against GAD65 in patients with type 1 diabetes. Professor Lernmark was first to use molecular methods to identify HL A genes that are necessary, but not sufficient to develop the disorder. Professor Lernmark has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1996.
PROFESSOR DAVID LESLIE, U.K, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Diabetes and Autoimmunity at the Royal London and St. Bartholomew's School of Medicine, University of London. He has been involved in diabetes research and clinical studies since 1975.
Professor Leslie has been Director of the British Diabetic Twin Study since 1982, the world's largest twin study of its type and Principal Investigator of the European Action LADA consortium. By studying twins, Professor Leslie has been able to show the possibilities for predicting and preventing autoimmune diabetes. Professor Leslie has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1999.
PROFESSOR BART O. ROEP, The Netherlands, M.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Autoimmune Diseases at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. He has focused on the role of autoreactive T cells in diabetes by assessing human cellular immune responses, autoantigen identification, and islet allograft rejection and the design and iimmunological monitoring of immunointervention strategies in clinical type 1 diabetes.
Professor Roep holds positions on a number of scientific advisory boards/research panels, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF), the Dutch National Research Council, the European Union, the European Foundation for Diabetes Research (EFSD) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA. Professor Roep has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 2006.
PROFESSOR ALLAN J. TOBIN, USA, Ph.D., is Managing Director of MRSSI Inc. MRSSI advises the High Q Foundation and CHDI, organizations dedicated to finding therapeutics for Huntington's disease. Previously, Professor Tobin was Eleanor Leslie Chair of Neuroscience and Director of the Brain Research Institute at UCLA, Los Angeles, USA.
Professor Tobin is also Scientific Director Emeritus of the Hereditary Disease Foundation, which organized the identiication of the gene that causes Huntington's disease. Professor Tobin has specialized in the use of molecular methods for synthesis, function and breakdown of GABA, which serves as the major inhibitory signal in the brain and the pancreas. Professor Tobin has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1996.
PROFESSOR HANS WIGZELL, born 1938, MD and Ph.D. Currently Senior Scientific Advisor for the Swedish Government during 1999-2007, The Karolinska Institute, Biocon (India) and HB M Partners (Switzerland). Dr. Wigzell is board member of Karolinska Development (Sweden), Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sweden), Raysearch AB (Sweden) and Intercell (Austria). Wigzell has been a member of the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board since 1996.