19.06.2019 - 19.06.2019 MS Matters: Biomarkers: The key to unlocking MS?

Existing biomarkers: Their importance in identifying disease progression and guiding treatment decisions 

In the first part of the third CONy & Teva Neuroscience MS Matters webinar, Prof. Sven Schippling, University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland, and Dr Jens Kuhle, University of Basel, Switzerland, highlight the broad range of uses of current biomarkers, as well as the difficulties associated with their validation. 

Video zinc code: HQ/MS/19/0015

Unmet need for novel biomarkers in MS – Could they provide the answers to key questions? 

Following on their discussion, Prof. Schippling and Dr Kuhle address what questions they hope novel biomarkers will answer in the future, and how comparability and standardisation issues are some of the main factors hindering advances in this area.

Video zinc code: HQ/MS/19/0016

What could potential new biomarkers in MS mean for patients?

In the concluding section of the webinar, Prof. Schippling and Dr Kuhle focus on optical coherence tomography (OCT) biomarkers and neurofilament light chain (NFL). They highlight the need for longitudinal studies that use the gold standard measures of disease activity in order to validate these measures.

Video zinc code: HQ/MS/19/0017

Faculty biographies

Prof. Sven Schippling University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland

Moderator  Sven Schippling is currently Deputy Head of the Department of Neuroimmunology and Clinical Multiple Sclerosis Research (nims) at the University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland. He is also the Co-Director of the Clinical Research Priority Program MS (CRPPMS) and Consultant Neurologist at the Department of Neurology at University Hospital Zürich. Prof. Schippling is a Senior Group Leader at the Neuroscience Centre Zürich of the Federal Technical high school Zürich and the University of Zürich. Prior to this, he was Head of the first MS Day Clinic in Germany at the University Medical Center of Hamburg University, Germany. From 2005 to 2006 he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London. Prof. Schippling’s areas of special interest are clinical neuroimmunology mainly within the fields of MS and neuromyelitis optica. His research focuses on multimodal imaging methods in MS, such as magnetic resonance imaging and optical coherence tomography, transcranial magnetic stimulation and clinical trials including stem cell therapies in MS (haematopoietic and mesenchymal).  

Dr Jens Kuhle  University of Basel, Switzerland Co-presenter  

Jens Kuhle was recently appointed as Head of the newly founded Multiple Sclerosis Centre at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. He is also Principal Investigator for the Swiss MS Cohort Study, a national academic network dedicated to biomarker and outcome research in MS. Dr Kuhle obtained his MD from the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen, Germany and specialised in neurology and neuroimmunology at the University Hospital Basel. He is the main coordinator of an international consortium for the validation of neurofilaments as clinical biomarkers in MS. Dr Kuhle acts as a reviewer for the Swiss, UK and American Multiple Sclerosis societies along with multiple MS-related journals. His research activities focus on biofluid markers related to the course and outcome of neurological diseases in general, and specifically on establishing neurofilament light chains as the first blood-based biomarker in MS. Based on this research, he received his PhD in Neuroimmunology at Queen Mary University, London, UK in 2014. This webinar is organised and funded by Teva Pharmaceuticals(Teva Pharmaceuticals Europe BV, Piet Heinkade 107, 1019 GM Amsterdam, The Netherlands)