ISGC Member Biographies

Dr Steve Bevan, BSc PhD

Steve Bevan graduated from the University of Portsmouth with first class honours and subsequently obtained his PhD from the University of London specialising in genetics. A 5 year position as a post doc and senior post-doc in cancer genetics at the Institute of Cancer Research led to tenure at St George's, University of London. Currently a Senior Lecturer in Cerebrovascular Genetics, Steve Bevan has an interest primarily in population genetics, statistical genetics, genome wide association studies and cerebrovascular and cardiovascular genetics, but is happy to work with any disease that has a genetic basis and sufficient cases for meaningful population genetic investigation. He has published over 50 peer reviewed articles in the field of genetics and has PI or co-applicant research funding from The Wellcome Trust, British Heart Foundation, The Stroke Association and the European Union among other sources.  Steve Bevan maintaines the ISGC website along with Lynelle Cortellini.

Lynelle Cortellini, MSc

Lynelle Cortellini has been involved with the ISGC from its inception. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Tufts University and her Masters of Science Degree from Brown University. In addition to serving as Project Manager overseeing the Rosand research group at MGH/Harvard/Broad, Lynelle continues to play a major role in the ISGC's administration and co-ordinates several ISGC projects, including the Intracerebral Hemorrhage Genome Wide Association Study.

Dr Stephanie Debette

Dr Stephanie Debette trained as a neurologist at the University Hospital of Lille, France, where she worked as a stroke-fellow for 2 years. She completed a masters degree in statistical genetics at the University Paris-XI, and a PhD in the epidemiology of carotid atherosclerosis, at the Inserm Unit U744 of the Pasteur-Institute in Lille, France. Dr Debette also spent a short period of her residency in the Department of Neurology of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and worked as a research fellow in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at St George's, University of London, UK.

Since July 2008 Dr Debette has worked as a Fulbright post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology of Boston University School of Medicine where she joined the neurology research team of the Framingham Heart Study, directed by Dr Sudha Seshadri and Dr Philip Wolf. Her main area of interest is the epidemiology and genetic epidemiology of cerebrovascular and cognitive disorders. She is involved in the analysis of genome-wide association studies of stroke, cognitive disorders and endophenotypes within the Framingham Heart Study and the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genetic Epidemiology) consortium. In parallel, Dr Debette is co-ordinating a European multicentre genome-wide assocation study on cervical artery dissection (CADISP).

 Associate Professor Chris Levi

Chris is a Chief Investigator and co-ordinator of the Australian Stroke Genetics Collaborative. He is senior Staff Specialist Neurologist, Director of Acute Stroke Services, John Hunter Hospital; Conjoint Assoc Professor of Medicine, University of Newcastle and Director of the Hunter Medical Research Institute/University of Newcastle Priority Centre for Brain and Mental Health Research. He established the Stroke Research Program in Newcastle in 1999 and in addition to his work in stroke genetics is working in the fields of stroke prevention, acute stroke neurovascular imaging, therapeutic hypothermia and tPA implementation. He has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles and has extensive experience in the design, conduct and management of large scale observational studies and clinical trials. His overarching research vision is the translation of experimental stroke therapies into the clinical domain and the implementation of effective stroke therapies.

Dr Jennifer Majersik, MD

Dr Majersik is a stroke neurologist at the University of Utah. She trained in neurology at the University of Utah and did he vascular fellowship at the University of Michigan. She is currently using the resources of the deep pedigree resources in Utah to find families at high risk for both ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke. Further studies will focus on both phenotyping and genotyping these families.

 Professor Hugh Markus, FRCP

Hugh Markus is Professor of Neurology at St George's, University of London and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at St George's Hospital in London. He qualified in medicine from Cambridge and Oxford Universities and trained in Oxford, Nottingham and London before being appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Neurology at Kings College School of Medicine and Dentistry and Kings College Hospital in 1994. In 2000 he moved to St George's as Professor of Neurology.

His research interests include the genetic basis of stroke and cerebral small vessel disease. He runs a national referral service for CADASIL and other monogenic forms of stroke. He is involved in a number of international collaborative projects trying to identify genetic risk factors for different types of stroke and is principal investigator on the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 Ischaemis Stroke study.

Dr Jonathan Rosand, MD

Jonathan Rosand is a clinician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard and the Broad Institute where he serves as a vascualr and critical care neurologist while also directing a laboratory research program at the Centre for Human Genetic Research. Jonathan was motivated to start the ISGC out of jealousy. In December 2007 colleagues with whom he shares his lab space jubilantly announced the first succusful genome-wide association results for type 2 diabetes. Two months later, at the February 2007 Inteernational Stroke Conference in San Francisco, Jonathan handed out flyers to anyone who would take one, announcing the ISGC's first organisational meeting, to be held in Boston April 2007. The goal was to join together to perform adequately powered GWAS of stroke. The ISGC's First International Workshop was quickly arranged for London in July 2007, and the rest is history. Jonathan's particular focus within the ISGC is intracerebral hemorrhage and the neuroimaging characterisation of ischaemic stroke. He leads the American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation Stroke Network's GWAS efforts. His group is developing a centralised data access portal for ISGC members.

Dr Natalie Rost, MD

Dr Natalia Rost is a clinician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard and the Broad Institute. A recipient of research fellowships from the National Stroke Association and the American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation, Dr Rost joined the MGH faculty after completing her post-doctoral training in the Rosand lab. She was appointed Associate Director of the Acute Stroke Service at MGH in 2008. Natalia's research interests are in the genetics and neuroimaging of stroke and outcome prediction. She has been involved with the ISGC since its inception and is Principal Investigator of the ISGC's 'Genome Wide Association Study of White Matter Hyperintensity in Patients with Acute Ischaemic Stroke' study.

Dr Cathie Sudlow, DPhil, FRCP

Dr Cathie Sudlow is Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She trained in medicine in the UK at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, qualifying in 1991. She became interested in neurology, stroke medicine and epidemiology as a medical senior house officer in Edinburgh in the early 1990's. She chose to specialise clinically in neurology, developing further her particular interest in stroke, and over the years has held clinical neurology posts in the UK in Edinburgh, Oxford and Plymouth. In 1997 she completed an MSc in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and then spent three years at the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, University of Oxford, completing her DPhil 'Antiplatelet drugs and vascular disease'. In 2001 she returned to Edinburgh as a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist in the Division of Clinical Neurosciences where she has set up a number of stroke related research projects, including the Edinburgh Stroke Study, a hospital based cohort study of >2000 patients with stroke or TIA, including a DNA collection.

She has particular expertise in epidemiological methods, in particular systematic reviews and meta-analysis. Her research interests and projects are in stroke epidemiology, stroke genetics, stroke prevention and systematic reviews of randomised trials and of observational studies.

Bradford B Worrall, MD, MSc

Bradford B Worrall is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia and director of the Vascualr Neurology Fellowship there. He has been active in numerous stoke genetics trials over the past decade including the Ischaemic Stroke Genetics Study (ISGS), the Siblings with Ischaemic Stroke Study (SWISS), the Genetics of Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Anticoagulation (GOCHA) study and the Familial Intracranial Aneurysm (FIA) study. He co-PI's a U-01 funded GWAS of treatement response grant with Michele Sale using the Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention (VISP) trial. The overall project is known as the Genome-wide Association Research Network into Effects of Treatment (GARNET) and includes a wide range of randomised clinical trials in many disease types. He is a founding member of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium and runs a translational stroke genetics laboratory at the University of Virginia.