Helen Tremlett, PhD
Currently an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver in the Faculty of Medicine, Division of Neurology and the Canada Research Chair in Neuroepidemiology and Multiple Sclerosis. Also funded by the MS Society of Canada’s Don Paty Career Development Award and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar award. Also holds operating grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the US National MS Society and the UK MS Trust. Trained in pharmacoepidemiology/ multiple sclerosis with a PhD from Cardiff University, UK. Heads the ‘Pharmacoepidemiology in MS (PiMS) Research group.’ Current research interests include: the natural history of MS; prognosis and predictors of disease progression in MS; mortality; effectiveness of the immunomodulatory drugs (IMDs) in MS; adverse effects of the MS IMDs; pharmacogenomics; MS epidemiology; cancer and MS; pregnancy outcomes and MS; impact of parental MS on childhood developmental outcomes; vitamin D, sunlight, infections and MS disease activity.
Title: ‘Using population-based data linkage to investigate MS epidemiology: recent findings from British Columbia, Canada’
Outline: This presentation will focus on the use of population-based data-linkage studies in British Columbia, Canada and how they have been harnessed to further our understanding of MS. Using this approach, the following questions will be addressed.
• Are pregnancy outcomes worse for women with MS?
• What’s the cancer risk in MS?
• How does MS impact life expectancy?
• Do the disease modifying drugs impact long-term disease progression in clinical practice?
Papers to be covered during the presentation:
van der Kop ML, Pearce MS, Dahlgren L, Synnes A, Sadovnick AD, Sayao A, Tremlett H Neonatal and delivery outcomes in women with multiple sclerosis. Annals of Neurology. 2011 Jul;70(1):41-50
Kingwell E, Bajdik C, Phillips N, Zhu F, Oger J, Hashimoto S, Tremlett H Cancer risk in multiple sclerosis: findings from British Columbia, Canada. Brain. 2012;135:2973-2979
Kingwell E, van der Kop M, Zhao Y, Shirani A, Zhu F, Oger J and Tremlett H. Relative mortality and survival in multiple sclerosis: Findings from British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2012 Jan;83(1):61-6.
Shirani, A, Zhao Y, Karim M, Evans C, Kingwell E, van der Kop M, Oger J, Gustafson P, Petkau J, Tremlett H. Association between use of beta-interferon and progression of disability in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. JAMA. 2012 Jul 18;308(3):247-56
Bruce Rosen, MD, PhD
Professor of Radiology and Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital
Director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at MGH
Title: ‘Advanced high-field imaging in MS‘
Dr. Rosen's research interest addresses how functional imaging tools can be applied to solve specific biological and clinical problems. The techniques he and his colleagues have developed in the area of “functional” imaging — that is, magnetic resonance images of the brain in which areas having some functional activity (e.g., visual cortex) are highlighted by receiving increased blood flow —are being used by hospitals throughout the world to evaluate patients with stroke, brain tumors, dementia, and other mental illness. Recently his work has focused on the fusion of fMRI data with information from other modalities, including very high temporal resolution signals using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and noninvasive optical imaging. By using fMRI tools to evaluate the linkage between neuronal and physiological (metabolic and hemodynamic) events during periods of increased neuronal activity, his studies will allow researchers to improve their ability to interpret fMRI signal changes, and develop new ways of probing brain function, including "event related" fMRI studies