Dr. Simon Rinaldi University of Oxford, UK

1 Talk
Biography

Dr. Rinaldi is a clinician scientist and clinical neurologist who leads the University of Oxford’s programme of inflammatory neuropathy research. This research spans from in vitro disease modelling using cell-based assays to biomarker discovery, clinical phenotyping, and clinical trials.... read more

His lab have developed models of immune mediated axonal injury and demyelination using human induced pluripotent stem cell derived myelinating co-cultures. These experimental systems are now being used to learn more about the mechanisms of immune-mediated peripheral nerve injury, and are a valuable tool in the search for novel auto-antibodies and for the discovery and pre-clinical evaluation of fluid biomarkers. The lab also runs the only UK based diagnostic testing service for nodal and paranodal antibodies, which associate with distinct forms of autoimmune nodopathy, and the underlying B-cell biology of these and related peripheral nerve disorders is a more recent area of study.

His research programme also includes a clinical / observational study of chronic inflammatory neuropathy (Bio-SPiN). The group additionally contributes to and benefits from close links with the comprehensive and high-quality clinical-serological database of 2000 patients encapsulated in the International GBS Outcome Study (IGOS), and has been involved in therapeutic trials in Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN).