[FG] Yaldizli Özgür

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. It is the most common non-traumatic cause of disability in young adults. The pathobiology includes inflammatory and neurodegenerative mechanisms that affect both white and gray matter. These mechanisms are heterogenous and so the disease is. At disease onset, it is almost impossible to predict the individual prognosis of a MS patient. Currently, there are more than a dozen disease modifying therapies approved for the treatment of MS with different mechanisms of action and varying degrees of efficacy to reduce the risk of a relaps and preserve neurological function. However, their effect on disability progression is (at best) limited. The goal of our research group is to disentangle the heterogeneity of multiple sclerosis by developing new biomarkers, to quantify disease pathology, to understand the mechanism of disability progression and to investigate the comparative effect of disease modifying drugs on clinical outcomes in multiple sclerosis in real-world. 

To answer these questions, we use data from the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort Study, the largest multicenter observational study on multiple sclerosis and related neuroinflammatory diseases in Switzerland. My research group is working in the matrix of the Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB, Prof Ludwig Kappos, Prof Christina Granziera) and closely with the clinical, cellular and molecular neuroimmunology research group of Professor Tobias Derfuss, the translational biomarker research group of Professor Jens Kuhle, the experimental neuroimmunology research group of Professor Anne-Katrin Pröbstel, the neuroimaging group of Professor Christina Granziera, the Clinical Trial Unit of the University Hospital Basel and University of Basel (Dr Pascal Benkert, Dr Sabine Schädelin, Dr Lisa Hofer), the digital biomarker research group of PD Dr Johannes Lorscheider, the Neurostatus research group of PD Dr Marcus D'Souza and the pragmatic trial research group of PD Dr Lars Hemkens.