moses v. chao, Ph.D.
Moses V. Chao received his BA degree at Pomona College and his PhD in biochemistry at UCLA.  He carried out postdoctoral research in molecular biology at Columbia University with Richard Axel before joining the faculty at Cornell University Medical School in 1984.  In 1998, he moved to NYU School of Medicine, where he is currently Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology & Neuroscience and Coordinator of the Molecular Neurobiology Program at the Skirball Institute.  His laboratory has been studying the mechanism of action of neurotrophins and their receptors.  Chao is currently an Editor for the Journal of Neurobiology, Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience and Experimental Neurology.   He is presently Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for NICHD and was appointed Chair of the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board by Governor Pataki in 2002.  In addition, he serves as Chair of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and the Scientific Advisory Board for the Glaucoma Research Foundation.  He is a recipient of a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. 

gregory j. del zoppo, md
Gregory J. del Zoppo is Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute and Member in the Division of Hematology/Medical Oncology, the Scripps Clinic, La Jolla, California. Acute interventions in ischemic stroke, plus stroke prevention and management are among Dr. del Zoppo's special clinical research interests. His basic research interests include the structure and responses of the neurovascular unit to focal ischemia, mechanisms of cerebral microvascular integrity, the pathology of focal cerebral ischemia, and the mechanisms of the development of intracranial hemorrhage.  In addition to these areas, his research group has contributed to the understanding of how the brain alters hemostasis during injury. Those observations have underwritten both acute anti-thrombotic and anti-inflammatory approaches for ischemic stroke.

Dr. del Zoppo is a fellow of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association, and a member of many national and international societies focused on vascular biology, hemostasis, and the central nervous system.  He has organized and served as the principal investigator of the rt-PA Acute Stroke Study, the Thrombolytic Therapy in Acute Thrombotic and Thromboembolic Stroke trial, the PROACT (Prolyse in Acute Cerebral Thromboembolism) trial, and a number of other acute intervention trials of ischemic stroke.  Dr. del Zoppo has authored or co-authored more than 200 publications primarily on cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases in journals such as Stroke, Annals of Neurology, Cerebrovascular Diseases, Neurology, the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, and others. He has co-edited and contributed to books concerning the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of stroke.

william dalton dietrich, III, Ph.D.
Dr. Dietrich received his B.S. in Biology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1974, and his Ph.D. in Anatomy (in the laboratory of Dr. J.T. Povlishock) from the Medical College of Virginia in 1979. Following completion of his Ph.D. requirements, Dr. Dietrich completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology (Dr. O.H. Lowry) at Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 1981.  In 1981, Dr. Dietrich joined the Department of Neurology at the University of Miami School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor, with a joint appointment in Cell Biology and Anatomy; in 1986, he was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure, and in 1993 attained the rank of Professor.  Dr. Dietrich served as Vice-Chairman for Basic Science in the Department of Neurology from 1995 to 1997, when he accepted the position of Scientific Director of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.  Dr. Dietrich has published 50 book chapters, 220 refereed journal articles, 256 abstracts, and 20 editorial comments.  He has been a thesis/dissertation advisor to 20 predoctoral students and has trained 31 postdoctoral fellows in his laboratory.  He currently serves on several editorial boards and grant review committees for brain and spinal cord injury research, including the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Dietrich is a neuroscientist who utilizes animal models of brain and spinal cord injury to investigate the cellular, biochemical, and molecular events associated with cell death and recovery.  In addition to testing new drugs in animal models, he has also investigated temperature-sensitive pathophysiological mechanisms.  Ongoing studies target apoptotic and inflammatory processes to limit secondary injury mechanisms.  Most recently, strategies to repair the brain and spinal cord have been initiated and include growth factor infusion and cellular transplantation strategies.

ulrich dirnagl, md
Dr. Ulrich Dirnagl is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Experimental Neurology, and Vice Chairman of the Department of Neurology, of Charite-Hospital, Humboldt University Berlin. His research is focused on stroke, cerebral blood flow regulation, and brain imaging. A number of groups in his Department work on exploring mechanisms by which brain ischemia leads to cell death, and develop novel methods to intercept mechanisms of damage in acute brain damage, as well as to foster regeneration and repair of the lesions. Currently, several randomised clinical trials are translating findings from Dr.Dirnagl's lab into medical practice.

Dr Dirnagl received his medical degree 1987 at the University of Munich. Between 1987-1988 he was research assistant at the Department of Neurology, University of Munich. Between 1988-1989 he was a research fellow and instructor at the Department of Neuroscience, Cornell University Medical Centre, N.Y.C, Chairman: Fred Plum, MD (sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD). Between 1990-1993 he was the co-director, Neurovacular Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, University of Munich. In 1993 he became the director of the Division of Experimental Neurology, Charité, Humboldt University Berlin and in 1999 he was appointed to professor and head, Hermann and Lilly Schilling Endowed Chair for Clinical Neuroscience, head of the Department of Experimental Neurology, Charité, Humboldt University, Berlin.

Dr Dirnagl is a member of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, the Society for Neuroscience (Washington DC), the German Neuroscience Society (Founding member). He is the vice-chairman of the Research Commission of the Charite Berlin and the deputy director of the Neuroscience Centre, Charite Berlin. He was awarded with the Gerhardt Hess Prize 1993 (German Research Council, DFG). Dr Dirnagl has authored and co-authored more than 90 excellent publications on cerebrovascular diseases in journals such as Stroke, Annals of Neurology, Neuroreport, the Journal of Neurosciences, Circulation, Brain, the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow Metabolism, and Brain Pathology. Dr Dirnagl is chief editor for the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, section editor for Neuroreport, associate editor for Brain Pathology and editorial board member of GLIA , Cerebrovascular Disorders, Acta Neuropathologica.

edward d. hall, Ph.D.
Edward D. Hall, Ph.D. received his Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 1976.  After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University Medical College, he joined the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor of Pharmacology.  In 1982, he moved to the CNS Diseases Research Unit of The Upjohn Company where he lead an effort over many years to discover and develop agents for the treatment of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, stroke and Parkinson's disease. He played a leading role in the development of high dose methylprednisolone therapy for acute spinal cord injury. For this work, he received the Upjohn Achievement in Science and Medicine Award in 1991. In addition, he was co-discoverer of the 21-aminosteroid (“lazaroid”) tirilazad. He was also involved in the successful development of the dopamine agonist pramipexole (MirapexR) for Parkinson's disease.

In 1997, Dr. Hall left Upjohn (by then, Pharmacia & Upjohn) and joined Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research which is now part of Pfizer Global Research and Development. In 2001, he was appointed Senior Director, CNS Pharmacology and directed the discovery of neuroprotective and neurorestorative compounds for acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases. On July 1, 2002, Dr. Hall joined the University of Kentucky Medical Center where he is Director of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center and an Endowed Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Neurology and Neurosurgery. His research interests include acute neuroprotective strategies that target reactive oxygen and calpain-mediated mechanisms in acute CNS injury. He is presently the PI on two NINDS grants. Dr. Hall is also a Section Editor for the Journal of Neurotrauma and a member of the editorial boards of Biochemical Pharmacology and Restorative Neurology & Neuroscience. He also serves on the NINDS Clinical & Neurological Diseases (CND) study section, the NINDS Spinal Muscular Atrophy Project Steering Committee and the Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. He was a founding member of the National Neurotrauma Society and is currently President-Elect.

j. marc simard, md, Ph.D.
Dr. Simard is Professor of Neurosurgery, Physiology and Pathology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. A board-certified neurosurgeon, Dr. Simard specializes in the treatment of disorders of the cerebral blood vessels, with special emphasis on carotid endarterectomy, aneurysms, and arteriovenous malformations, which he treats either by advanced microsurgical techniques or by Gamma Knife radiosurgery. In addition to his active practice at University Hospital, he also serves as Chief of Neurological Surgery at the Baltimore Veterans' Affairs Medical Center.

Dr. Simard is Director of the Department's Cerebrovascular Research Laboratory. The laboratory focuses on studies of cellular mechanisms regulating cerebral blood flow, with a primary emphasis on patch clamp and molecular study of ion channels in cerebral smooth muscle and endothelial cells. A more recent focus of the laboratory is on cellular mechanisms of edema formation, with special emphasis on the novel NCCa-ATP channel recently discovered by the lab.  The laboratory's scientific work has been funded for many years by numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the Veterans Administration and the Christopher Reeves Paralysis Foundation. Dr. Simard has published extensively in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and he serves frequently on grant review panels for the NIH, the AHA, and the VA. He trains not only neurosurgery residents but also has served as major professor for several doctoral students in neuroscience, physiology, and pathology.

Dr. Simard received his Bachelor's degree from St. Anselm's College, and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Creighton University. He completed residency training in neurosurgery with Dr. Albert Rhoton at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and did a postdoctoral fellowship in ion channel physiology with Professor Hans Meves, at the Physiologisches Institut, Universitaet des Saarlandes, Germany.

eugene d. means, md (chief medical officer)
Dr. Eugene Means received his MD degree from SUNY at Buffalo.  He completed his training in Internal Medicine and Neurology at Northwestern University followed by a fellowship in experimental neuropathology.  Following completion of his training, he served on the Faculty of Medicine at Albany Medical College and the University of South Florida where his research focused on spinal cord injury. Dr. Means moved to the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine where he served as Professor and Vice Chairman of Neurology and Professor of Pathology.  He also was Chief of Staff of the Cincinnati Veterans Administration Hospital.  He continued his research on neuroprotection and spinal cord injury in association with Dr. Douglas Anderson.  During a nine year period, the work from the laboratory contributed to a better understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of spinal cord injury.

In 1987, Dr. Means joined Industry with the Upjohn Company as Group Director of CNS where he was responsible for the worldwide development of tirilazad, an aminosteroid neuroprotectant.  Six major registration trials for ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage and traumatic head injury were planned and conducted worldwide. During his tenure with Upjohn, Dr. Means was awarded the Upjohn Achievement in Science and Medicine Award. Dr. Means joined Astra Merck in 1995, as Director of CNS Development and later Director of Emerging Products where he participated in the early development of NXY-059 for ischemic stroke.  He also contributed to the conduct of a phase III trial of Zendra for ischemic stroke in the US.  Following the AstraZeneca merger, he again contributed to the conduct of the NXY-059 phase III SAINT II trial. During his 20 year tenure in industry, Dr Means has been responsible for or contributed to the planning & conduct of numerous clinical trials in acute & chronic diseases in CNS many of which focused on neuroprotection.  

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