Dr. Waubant is a neurologist who specializes in treating MS patients. She is a Professor of Neurology and serves as Director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Regional Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. She earned her medical degree at the Lille University School of Medicine and completed a residency in neurology at Toulouse University Hospital. Dr. Waubant’s research focuses on new treatments for MS. She also studies environmental and genetic risk factors in adults and children with the disease. Dr. Waubant is the Medical Director of Race to Erase MS and serves on the translational research review committee for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. She chairs the clinical trial task force and is a member of the steering committee of the International Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group. A prominent contributor to scientific journals in her field, she is a co-chief editor of Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, and the MS section editor for Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology.

Dr. García Merino is a neurologist focused on MS. He is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neuroimmunology Lab at Puerta de Hierro Hospital, Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, where he runs a national reference unit for MS. He obtained his medical degree at the Faculty of Medicine, Valladolid, and trained as a neurologist at Puerta de Hierro Hospital. He received his PhD degree in 1985 at the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid. Dr. García Merino has held research posts at Karolinska Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of California, San Francisco. His research interests are focused on mediation of damage in experimental models of neuroinflammation, the search for new therapeutic targets, and the role of the endocannabinoid system in MS.

Dr. Patricia Carreira is Associate Professor of Rheumatology in the University Hospital 12 de Octubre, Universidad Complutense, Madrid Spain. After her residency and fellowship in Rheumatology in the University Hospital 12 de Octubre, she became interested in scleroderma at the Rheumatology Division of South Carolina, directed by Dr. E. Carwile LeRoy and Dr. Rick M. Silver. Dr. Carreira is a founding member of the EUSTAR (European Scleroderma Trials and Research Group) and INSYNC (International Systemic Sclerosis Inception Cohort Group). She has worked with international scleroderma groups, ESOS (European Scleroderma Observational Study), and SPIN (Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network). Her professional clinical research has focused on epidemiological research centered on autoimmune systemic diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus, inflammatory myopathies, and systemic sclerosis. Dr. Carreira has coauthored more than 200 papers and textbook chapters, mainly related to scleroderma.

Dr. John Varga is Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Michigan and also the founder of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Scleroderma Program. He earned his medical degree at New York University and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Rhode Island Hospital-Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He had a Rheumatology Fellowship at Boston University and was a post-doctoral research fellow of the Arthritis Foundation in the laboratory of Sergio Jimenez at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Varga has served on National Institutes of Health Study Section panels since 1998 and is the director of an NIH-supported translational research program focusing on basic and clinical aspects of scleroderma and the discovery of novel therapies. He is also an elected member of AOA, the Association of American Physicians, and the Henry Kunkel Society. A prominent contributor to scientific journals in his field, Dr. Varga has published over 250 peer-reviews articles, along with 150 reviews and textbook chapters, three books, and over a dozen chapters in Up To Date. He has trained over 20 clinical and research fellows, received the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Scleroderma Foundation and was listed in Best Doctors in America for 2017-2018.

Dr. Janet Pope is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Schulich School of Medicine, London, Ontario, Canada. She is the Division Head in Rheumatology at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, London. Dr. Pope has mentored over 125 research students and trainees and has received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Canadian Rheumatology Association, Rheumatologist of the Year from the Ontario Rheumatology Association, Department of Medicine Research Achievement Award, and the Dean’s Award of Excellence in Research. She has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles, 15 chapters, 500 abstracts and several Cochrane meta-analysis reviews. Her research interests are focused on scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, including outcome measurements, clinical trials and disease manifestations.

Dr. Furst is Adjunct Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, and Research Professor at the University of Florence, Florence, Italy, and was the first Carl M. Pearson Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has part-time practices at the Pacific Arthritis Care Center in Santa Monica, California, and Seattle Rheumatology Associates in Seattle, Washington. He received his MD from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Furst has a lifetime interest in the clinical pharmacology of antirheumatic drugs and biologics and clinical trial design as well as definition of measures of response. Dr. Furst has been deeply involved in the pathophysiology and treatment of systemic sclerosis and has been involved in, led or mentored development of the FDA guidance for disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), recommendations for biologics by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the definition of the Clinical Response Index for Systemic Sclerosis, the American College of Rheumatology Response Criteria, the definition of Rheumatology Common Toxicity Criteria, and Flare Criteria for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Dr. Furst has published more than 950 articles including more than 580 peer-reviewed research articles and written for or edited 17 books.