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Research Team

The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) Principal Investigators were selected based on their complementary knowledge and expertise, their past contributions to advancing our understanding of the key biological processes and interactions that control myelination and their common interest in developing treatments to repair myelin. Each investigator, along with the resources of their laboratories, is critical to the Myelin Repair Foundation achieving its goals.

The Principal Investigators:

• Ben Barres, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University
• Robert H. Miller, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University
• Stephen D. Miller, Ph.D., Northwestern University
• Brian Popko, Ph.D., University of Chicago

Read the bios and vita for each investigator, and see their recent publications.

Areas of Expertise

Taken together, the areas of expertise for the five Principle Investigators (PIs) and their labs cover a broad range of the research necessary to understand the basic mechanisms of myelination in the central nervous system, how these mechanisms are disrupted by multiple sclerosis (MS) and how to induce myelin repair.

Areas of expertise by lab:

The ongoing “refreshing” of the five-year research plan in response to discoveries is one of the most dynamic and effective features of MRF’s accelerated research collaboration model. In particular, it enables the scientists to move their experiments forward in tandem with one another as the experiments are completed.

It also allows the scientists and MRF’s Scientific Advisory Board to review on a regular basis the proposed experiments and the degree to which those experiments remain focused on the ultimate goal of identifying and validating myelin repair therapeutic targets. 

To find out more, download these PDFs:

• Research Plan Summary (PDF)
• Research Progress Update (PDF)

In addition, you can read about our latest work in the President’s Message.

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Scientific Advisory Board Members

The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) evaluates the research plans and investigations proposed by the Principal Investigators (PIs). SAB members were carefully chosen from related fields and all are well regarded in their respective area of expertise.

• Joe Davie, M.D., Ph.D. Biogen (retired)
• Stephen Freedman, Ph.D. Consultant
• John W. Griffin, M.D. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Stephen L. Hauser, M.D. University of California, San Francisco
• Henry F. McFarland M.D. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
• Martin Raff, M.D. University College London
• Louis Reichardt, Ph.D. University of California, San Francisco
• Gary Westbrook, M.D. Oregon Health Sciences University
   
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Joe Davie, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Joe Davie was employed by Biogen, Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, from 1993 to 2000, most recently serving as senior vice president of research. From 1987 to 1993, Dr. Davie held several positions at G.D. Searle & Co., including president of research and development and senior vice president of science and technology. Prior to joining G.D. Searle & Co., Dr. Davie was Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine from 1975 to 1987.

He currently serves as a director of Curis, Inc., Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., Targeted Genetics and several private companies. Dr. Davie received his A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. in Bacteriology from Indiana University and his M.D. from Washington University School of Medicine.

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Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.

Dr. Stephen Freedman has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry including senior positions at Merck and Co. where he was a senior member of their CNS research group, and Sr. Vice President, Head of Global Research for Elan Pharmaceuticals. He has interests in a number of therapeutic areas including neurology, psychiatry, pain, inflammation and a number of associated autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, asthma, RA and IBD. During his association with Merck and Elan, Dr. Freedman worked on more than a dozen small molecules and biologics entering clinical development. He is an author on nearly 100 research publications and is an inventor on a number of patents in these therapeutic areas.

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John W. Griffin, M.D.

Dr. John Griffin is Director of the Department of Neurology, Professor of Neuroscience and Pathology and Neurologist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

His research career has been devoted to the neurobiology and neuropathology of the peripheral nervous system, and the study of peripheral neuropathies. Dr. Griffin was brought up in Nebraska and attended Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, and Stanford University School of Medicine. He was a medical intern and resident at Stanford, and did his neurology residency at Johns Hopkins, before going to the NIH as a clinical associate. He has been on the faculty at Johns Hopkins since 1976, and has been a professor of neurology and neuroscience since 1986.

In 1998, he was named Director of the Department of Neurology and Neurologist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins. His honors include the Jacob Javits Award from the NIH, and multiple teaching awards, including the Professor's Award of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has given many named lectures, including the Robert Wartenberg Lecture of the American Academy of Neurology and the Soriano Lecture of the American Neurological Association. He is a member of the National Advisory Council to the National Institute of Neurologic Disease and Stroke. He is Chair of the Burroughs Welcome Fund Program in Translational Research, Past President of the Peripheral Nerve Society and the Society for Experimental Neuropathology, and President of the American Neurological Association.

For more information on Dr. John W. Griffin click here.

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Stephen L. Hauser, M.D.

Dr. Stephen Hauser is the Robert A. Fishman Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Hauser is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Medical School. He trained in internal medicine at the New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center, in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and in immunology at Harvard Medical School and the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. He was a faculty member at the MGH before moving to UCSF in 1992. A neuroimmunologist, Dr. Hauser's research has focused on the biology of multiple sclerosis (MS). His laboratory described a disease model in which synergistic actions of T-cells and autoantibodies mediate an multiple sclerosis-like disease. He also leads a consortium to identify the genes that confer susceptibility to multiple sclerosis. Dr. Hauser is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association of Physicians, is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and serves as an editor of the medical textbook Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine.

For more information on Dr. Stephen L. Hauser click here.

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Henry F. McFarland, M.D.

Dr. Henry F. McFarland is deputy chief of the Neuroimmunology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Dr. McFarland received his B.A. degree from the University of Arizona and his M.D. in 1966 from the University of Colorado. Following a residency in neurology at Thomas Jefferson University, Dr. McFarland did postdoctoral research in neurovirology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and in immunology at University College London, before returning to Hopkins as a neurologist.

In 1975, Dr. McFarland came to NIH as deputy chief of the Neuroimmunology Branch of NINDS, where he has served as chief since 1993. In 1998 he was awarded the Dystal Prize for outstanding research in multiple sclerosis (MS). Dr. McFarland's laboratory studies the cellular immune response to autoantigens of the CNS and examines therapeutic strategies targeting this response. Additional research includes studies of the natural history of multiple sclerosis using MRI and identifying effective designs for clinical trials of new therapies for multiple sclerosis.

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Martin Raff, M.D.

Dr. Martin Raff is a Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University College London.

Dr. Raff was born and educated in Montreal. He received his B.S. and M.D. degrees at McGill University and did a residency in medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal and in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He did postdoctoral training in immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, after which he moved to University College London, where he has been a Professor of Biology since 1979. He is currently at the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology and Cell Biology Unit and in the Biology Department at University College London. His research has been in immunology, cell biology and developmental neurobiology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academia Europaea, a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, was president of the British Society of Cell Biology from 1991 to 1995, and chairman of the UK Life Sciences Committee from 1998-2001.

For more information on Dr. Martin Raff click here.

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Louis Reichardt, Ph.D.

Dr. Louis Reichardt is Professor of Physiology and of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Director of the Herbert W. Boyer Program in Biological Sciences and the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Reichardt received his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Stanford University for work on control of gene expression by the phage l. He entered the field of neurobiology as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University where he studied factors that regulate the transmitter phenotype of neurons. Dr. Reichardt's honors include a McKnight Scholars Award, a Sloan Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

For more information on Dr. Louis Reichardt click here.

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Gary Westbrook, M.D.

Dr. Gary Westbrook is a Professor of Neurobiology at Oregon Health Sciences University.

Dr. Westbrook is a senior scientist and holds concurrent appointments in Neurology and in Physiology and Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. Dr. Westbrook received an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1976 after undergraduate work in biology and graduate study in biomedical engineering. He was an intern and resident at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Boston and at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. After clinical training in Internal Medicine and Neurology, he spent six years at the National Institutes of Health before moving to the Vollum Institute in 1987.

For more information on Dr. Gary Westbrook click here.

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