Steering Committee

Amy Perrin Ross, APN, MSN, CNRN, MSCN
Neuroscience Program Coordinator
Department of Neurosciences
Loyola University Chicago
Stritch School of Medicine
Maywood, Illinois

Disclosure Information:

Sources of Funding for Research: None
Consulting Agreements: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; Biogen Idec; EMD Serono, Inc.; Genentech, Inc.; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; Pfizer Inc; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Speakers’ Bureau/Honorarium Agreements: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; Biogen Idec; EMD Serono, Inc.; Genentech, Inc.; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; Pfizer Inc; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Financial Interests/Stock Ownership: None
Discussion of Off-label, Experimental, or Investigational Drug Use: None

Biography:

Amy Perrin Ross, APN, MSN, CNRN, MSCN, is a board-certified neuroscience nurse and the Neuroscience Program Coordinator at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. She obtained her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Loyola University Chicago, Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing in Chicago, Illinois, in 1977 and a master of science degree in nursing from the school in 1982.

Ms. Ross is an advanced practice nurse who coordinates the ms clinic at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood Illinois. In her role at Loyola, she has coordinated multiple clinical research trials in ms. She is a member of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, the International Organization of Multiple Sclerosis Nurses, and the Multiple Sclerosis Nursing International Certification Board. Amy is the President-Elect of the International Organization of Multiple Sclerosis Nurses. She has authored numerous articles and book chapters on ms and dementia.

In addition, Ms. Ross is a clinical nurse consultant with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and a former board member of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers. She has been invited to speak at numerous meetings and conferences and has been very active in clinical neuroscience research for more than 20 years. In 1983, Ms. Ross received the Nursing Research Award for excellence in clinical nursing research from the University of Arizona’s College of Nursing in Tucson.

Rosalee Blumer
Scientific Director
DIME
Chicago, Illinois

Disclosure Information:

Sources of Funding: None
Consulting Agreements: None
Speakers’ Bureau/Honorarium Agreements: None
Financial Interests/Stock Ownership: None
Discussion of Off-Label, Investigational, or Experimental Drug Use: None

Mark C. Cascione, MD
Medical Director
South Tampa Multiple Sclerosis Center
Tampa, Florida

Disclosure Information:

Sources of Funding for Research: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; EMD Serono, Inc.; Pfizer Inc; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Consulting Agreements: Biogen Idec
Financial Interests/Stock Ownership: None
Speakers' Bureau/Honorarium Agreements: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; EMD Serono, Inc.; Pfizer Inc; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Discussion of Off-Label, Investigational, or Experimental Drug Use: None

Biography

Mark C. Cascione, MD, is medical director of the South Tampa Multiple Sclerosis Center in Tampa, Florida. He received his medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed his neurology residency and clinical neurophysiology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Cascione’s clinical research experience includes the investigation of various drugs for use in multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, stroke, and migraine headache. He has been the principal investigator of a number of MS clinical trials and is vice president of Axiom Clinical Research of Florida. Dr. Cascione is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Clinical Advisory Committee, and medical advisor to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. Dr. Cascione also runs one of the largest multiple sclerosis centers in the Southeast.

Fred D. Lublin, MD

Saunders Family Professor of Neurology
Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis
Mount Sinai Medical Center
New York, New York

Disclosure Information:

Sources of Funding for Research: Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.; Biogen Idec; Genentech, Inc.; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Consulting Agreements: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; Biogen Idec; BioMS Medical Corp.; EMD Serono, Inc.; Genentech, Inc.; Medarex, Inc.; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; Pfizer Inc; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Speakers’ Bureau/Honorarium Agreements: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; EMD Serono, Inc.; Pfizer Inc; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.
Current Financial Interests/Stock Ownership: Cognition Therapeutics, Inc.
Discussion of Off-Label, Investigational, or Experimental Drug Use: None

Biography

Fred D. Lublin, MD, is the Saunders Family Professor of Neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and Director of the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at that institution. Dr. Lublin received his medical degree in 1972 from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He completed his internship in internal medicine at the Bronx Municipal Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical Center, and his residency at the New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center.

As a neuroimmunologist, Dr. Lublin has a special interest in immune functions and abnormalities affecting the nervous system. He has been involved in both basic science and clinical research. He and his colleagues were among the first in the country to study IFN β-1b, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993 to treat the relapsing-remitting form of MS. He is currently involved with several new clinical research protocols on promising agents for treating various aspects of MS and is the principal investigator and national coordinating investigator for a multicenter National Institutes of Health–sponsored trial of combination therapy in MS. He was chairman of the National MS Society advisory committee on clinical trials of new drugs in multiple sclerosis and the National MS Society’s Research Programs Advisory Committee.

Dr. Lublin and his colleagues at the National MS Society have redefined the clinical course definitions of MS using data from a survey of the international MS community. He has chaired a task force on the ethics of placebo-controlled trials in MS and was a member of the panel that has redefined the diagnostic criteria for MS. Dr. Lublin has published numerous scientific articles and belongs to many professional societies and advisory boards. He has served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health and to many pharmaceutical/biotech companies in all phases of new drug development and in preparation for presentation to the FDA and its advisory panels.