The SpA in Motion programme has been developed by the Scientific Committee:
Professor Lene Terslev Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research (COPECARE), Rigshospitalet – Glostrup and University of Copenhagen
Professor Mikkel Østergaard Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research (COPECARE), Rigshospitalet Glostrup and University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Dr Gaëlle Varkas Department of Rheumatology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
Professor Dirk Elewaut Department of Rheumatology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium
Professor Per-Johan Jakobsson Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden
Dr Mirjam de Vries K2 Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden
Associate Professor Tue Wenzel Kragstrup Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
Dr Marleen van de Sande Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dr Laura Kuusalo Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Finland
Dr Gunnstein Bakland Rheumatology Department, University Hospital of North Norway (UNN), Norway
Professor Kurt de Vlam Department of Rheumatology, Leuven University Hospital, Belgium
SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speakers
Professor Mikkel Østergaard Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research (COPECARE), Rigshospitalet – Glostrup and University of Copenhagen, Denmark SpA in Motion 2022 Scientific Committee Member, Live Event Chair and Speaker
Professor Mikkel Østergaard is Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet (the National Hospital), Denmark. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1990 and went on to become a Research Fellow at The Danish Research Centre of Magnetic Resonance and Department of Rheumatology, obtaining his PhD in 1996, and doctoral degree (DMSc) in 1999. He is the Chair of the Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research (COPECARE). His PhD and doctoral theses described aspects of rheumatoid arthritis. He is involved in many national and
international studies of axial spondylarthritis, psoriatic arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Professor Østergaard was Chair of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Standing Committee on Imaging from 2010-2012 and is current Co-Chair of the Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials (OMERACT) MRI in Inflammatory Arthritis Study Group. He is also Co-Chair of the Coordinating Centre of the European Spondyloarthritis Research Collaboration Network (EuroSpA) and a member of the International Spondyloarthritis (ASAS) and Psoriasis/Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) Working Groups as well as of the Editorial Boards for several rheumatological
journals.
Professor Østergaard has supervised/is supervising >35 PhD-projects and has published >500 peer-reviewed articles and >750 international congress abstracts. He has chaired and lectured at imaging workshops at EULAR and the American College of Radiology (ACR) congresses for >10 years.
Professor Dirk Elewaut Ghent University Hospital, Belgium SpA in Motion 2022 Scientific Committee Member, Live Event Chair and Speaker
Professor Dirk Elewaut is Professor of Rheumatology and Immunology at Ghent University and Chair of the Department of Rheumatology and Immunology at Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. He is also Principal Investigator at Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Inflammation, UZ Gent/VIB-UGent.
Professor Lene Terslev Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research (COPECARE), Rigshospitalet Glostrup and University of Copenhagen, Denmark SpA in Motion 2022 Scientific Committee Member, Live Event Moderator and Speaker
Professor Lene Terslev is a Professor in Clinical Rheumatology and Head of the Rheumatological Ultrasound Unit at the Center for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases at Rigshospitalet, Glostrup, Denmark. Professor Terslev has worked with musculoskeletal ultrasound since 1999 and obtained her PhD degree from Copenhagen University with a dissertation on ”Doppler Ultrasound in the Detection and Quantification of Inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis”. She has been teaching on National and International ultrasound courses since 2004 and has been a faculty member of the European Alliance
of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Sonography Courses since 2005. She was a Member of the EULAR Scientific Committee from 2013-2018, the Chair of EULAR Standing Committee of Musculoskeletal Imaging from 2016 -2018 and is currently the Co-Chair of the Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials (OMERACT) Special Interest Group on Ultrasound.
Professor Terslev is involved in National and International imaging studies of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritis, vasculitis and sjögrens disease and is working for standardisation and certification in musculoskeletal ultrasound. She has published more than 180 papers on ultrasound and rheumatology including book chapters in this field.
Dr Marleen van de Sande Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands SpA in Motion 2022 Scientific Committee Member, Live Event Moderator and Speaker
Dr Marleen van de Sande studied Medicine at the University of Amsterdam. In 2004 she started her research training at the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam. In 2012 she finished her thesis entitled ‘Clinical and Molecular Classification of Very Early Arthritis Patients’. During her PhD she was trained in performing arthroscopically guided synovial biopsy sampling. In 2016 she started working as a Rheumatologist at the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the Academic Medical Center
(Amsterdam), combining patient care, teaching and research. Additionally, she supervises the Spondyloarthritis Outpatient Clinic. Dr van de Sande has extensive experience in translational research and is currently focusing on the immunopathogenesis of spondyloarthritis from the pre-clinical phases onwards.
Associate Professor Tue Wenzel Kragstrup Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark SpA in Motion 2022 Scientific Committee Member and Live Event Speaker
Dr Tue Wenzel Kragstrup is currently working as a part-time Associate Professor in immunology and pharmacology and a part-time Rheumatology Fellow in Aarhus and Silkeborg, Denmark. The Kragstrup lab focuses on the immunological mechanisms of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, with special interest in drug development. Dr Kragstrup graduated from Aarhus University Medical School in 2010 after also spending time at Sydney University Hospital. He did his internship in Copenhagen and completed his PhD at the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University and the Department of
Immunology at Stanford University. Dr Kragstrup is leading the Emerging EULAR Network (EMEUNET) Education Subgroup for the third year.
Professor Rik Lories Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, Belgium SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speaker
Professor Rik Lories is a Professor at the Katholieke University (KU) Leuven. He is the Head of the Clinical Division of Rheumatology at Leuven University Hospitals. He is also the Chair of the Department of Development and Director of the Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Center, which includes the Laboratory for Tissue Homeostasis and Disease that Professor Lories is leading together with Professor Silvia Monteagudo. His research focuses on endogenous tissue responses in the joint, with specific attention towards translational questions in chronic arthritis, more
specifically in spondyloarthritis and osteoarthritis. He obtained his medical degree summa cum laude in 1996.
In 2003, Professor Lories was certified as a Rheumatologist. In 2003 he also obtained a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the KU Leuven. His team’s main scientific contributions include the identification of bone morphogenetic protein signaling in the process of progressive ankylosis, and the links between biomechanical stress, inflammation, and new bone formation in spondyloarthritis. In osteoarthritis, the Tissue Homeostasis and Disease laboratory has identified the key role of Wnt signaling and its regulators in onset and progression of disease. Professor Lories is a board
member of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI), of the Royal Belgian Society of Rheumatology and Scientific Chair of the Foundation for Research in Rheumatology (FOREUM), the European Rheumatology Research Foundation, and of the Rheumatology Research Fund Belgium. Currently, he serves as Associate Editor for the journals Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases and Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. He has (co-) authored >160 publications, including original research reports and reviews in Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Journal
of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Nature Reviews Rheumatology and Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
Professor Tore K. Kvien University of Oslo, Norway SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speaker
Professor Tore Kvien has been Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Oslo since 1997 (now Professor Emeritus) and Head of the Department of Rheumatology at Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo from 1994 to 2019. He was the Principal Investigator of the Norwegian government funded NOR-SWITCH trial, which was published in Lancet 2017. He has published more than 600 original research articles, was President of European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR (2005-2007)) and Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2008-2017). He has received several
international awards and in 2019 Professor Kvien was appointed Officer First Class of the Royal Order of St Olav by the King of Norway.
Docent Dan Nordström University of Helsinki, Finland SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speaker
Professor Docent Dan Nordström currently holds a position as Professor and Senior Researcher at the Department
of Medicine and Rheumatology at the University of Helsinki. Additionally, he
works as a Consultant for internal medicine and rheumatology at Helsinki
University Hospital. Professor Nordström completed his MD at the University of
Helsinki in 1983, followed by his PhD in medicine in 1989. He completed his
specialisation in Internal medicine in 1991 and his specialisation in
Rheumatology in 1994, at the University of Helsinki.
Professor Nordström held a
position as Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer for Internal Medicine from 1998
- 2021 and was appointed Professor in December of 2021. In 2003, he received
national peer acknowledgment as a medical educator by the University of
Helsinki as well as the Teacher of the Year Award for Musculoskeletal Diseases
from the Society of Musculoskeletal Diseases. Professor Nordström has been an
elected member of the Finnish Medical Association (since 1983), the Finish
Society of Internal Medicine (since 1990), the Society for Docents (since 1996),
and the Scandinavian Society for Rheumatology (since 2001). Additionally, he
held a seat on the board of directors for the Scandinavian Society for
Rheumatology (2010-2018) as well as on the board of directors for the Finnish
Society of Rheumatology, where he acted as a president from 2009-2011.
Professor Nordström is an
editorial board member and reviewer for multiple books and medical journals,
including Duodecim and Best Practise Rheumatology. He has held the Chief Researcher
position for a multitude of research studies, and since 2015 is Co-Head of the
Helsinki Rheumatology and Inflammation Research Group, next to Prof Kari
Eklund. Professor Nordström acted as a European Alliance of Associations for
Rheumatology (EULAR) representative on behalf of the Finnish Society for Rheumatology
(Section for Education and Training) from 2012 to 2014. He also has been a
Board Member on the Board of Education, within the Division of Medicine at
Helsinki University Central Hospital (2000-2021) as well as the Board of the
Ethics committee at Helsinki University Central Hospital (2002-2009). Professor
Nordström has supervised multiple research projects and has published 171
research articles and reviews in peer-reviewed journals.
Professor Martin Guilliams Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Mucosal Immunology, VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research - Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Belgium SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speaker
Professor Martin Guilliams obtained his PhD in 2008 at the Free University of Brussels within the Laboratory of Patrick De Baetselier (VUB, Brussels, Belgium). He did his first postdoc at the Centre d'Immunologie Marseille-Luminy (CIML, Marseille, France) in the lab of Bernard Malissen and his second postdoc at Ghent University (VIB Center for Inflammation Research) in the lab of Bart Lambrecht. In 2015, he obtained a Tenure-Track Professorship from the Faculty of Science at Ghent University. In 2017, he obtained an European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant and became
an independent Principal Investigator at the VIB.
Professor Guilliams currently leads a research team that focuses on applying single-cell technologies to unravel the functional specialisation of human and mouse liver myeloid cells at the VIB Center for Inflammation Research (Ghent University, Belgium). The Guilliams lab contributes to the Immgen Consortium (www.immgen.org) and to Human Cell Atlas Consortium (www.humancellatlas.org) by providing bulk and single-cell profiling of mouse and human liver myeloid cells.
Professor Jeroen Raes Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute, KU Leuven - University of Leuven - Center for Microbiology, VIB, Belgium SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speaker
Professor Jeroen Raes (m) is full professor at KU Leuven since 2013 and VIB group leader since 2009. His group currently consists of 30 scientists, with expertise in bioinformatics, systems biology, clinical research and microbiology. He has a substantial track record in microbiome research and has been pioneering the analysis and integration of meta-omics datasets (metagenomics,
metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, meta-metabolomics) with environmental, clinical, host omics and dietary data. He was involved in the FP7 MetaHIT and NIH Human Microbiome Project (the latter as only European partner), which laid the foundations for the human microbiome field as it is today. Finally, his lab is performing a wide range of disease-related projects in a.o. IBD, diabetes, cancer,
IBS and depression and develops novel approaches and tools for microbiome research. Professor Raes coordinates the Flemish Gut Flora project, a large-scale microbiome focused population cohort in Belgium. He has received multiple awards and recognitions, among which a selection as FWO Odysseus Fellow, a Francqui Chair and selection for Cell journal’s “40 under 40” promising young scientists.
His 2011 paper in Nature was selected by Science as part of their “Top 10 breakthroughs of the year 2011”.
Professor Raes has published >170 papers in top ranking journals such as Science (8), Nature (15), Nature Biotechnology (4), Nature Microbiology (6), Nature Reviews Microbiology (2), Gut (11) and PNAS (4). He has an h-factor of 69 and his work has been cited >37.000 (ISI).
Professor Lennart Jans Ghent University, Belgium, Past Chair of ESSR Arthritis Subcommittee SpA in Motion 2022 Live Event Speaker
Professor Lennart Jans is the Head of Clinics in Musculoskeletal Imaging of the Department of Radiology at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. He is past Chair of the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR) Arthritis Subcommittee and a member of Assessment in Ankylosing Spondylitis (ASAS) work group and the Outcome Measures in Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials (OMERACT) Initiative. As a Musculoskeletal Radiologist, his main field of interest is inflammatory musculoskeletal diseases, with a focus on spondyloarthritis. He has authored and co-authored about 100
scientific papers and 3 books, edited the book 'Arthritis Imaging', and has given numerous invited lectures.