Joseph J Volpe Author & Editor

Joseph Volpe is generally considered to have founded the field of neonatal neurology. Dr. Inder is a dual-boarded neonatologist and child neurologist and is the current Chair of the Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine. A native of New Zealand, she previously worked at the University of Melbourne, and Washington University in St. Louis before joining Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2013. She has a passion for improving long-term outcomes of high-risk infants including premature infants and at-risk term born infants. Dr. Inder is the Mary Ellen Avery Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Newborn Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Basil T. Darras is Associate Neurologist-in-Chief and Chief of the Division of Clinical Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, and the Joseph J. Volpe Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Darras is a pediatric neurologist with advanced training and certification in human genetics and neuromuscular medicine. At Boston Children's he serves as Director of the Neuromuscular Program, which includes one of the oldest and most active muscular dystrophy clinics in the country and where he specializes in the care of children with neuromuscular conditions originating from inherited or acquired conditions of the motor unit. He has published over 140 original reports in peer-reviewed journals and over 70 chapters, reviews and editorials; his major publications and specific research interests have focused on the molecular genetics, diagnostics, and therapeutics of Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies and spinal muscular atrophy, and on defining the indications for new diagnostic methodologies in the evaluation of children with pediatric neuromuscular diseases. Basic research, carried out in collaboration with scientists in the research laboratories of Boston Children's and other institutions, focuses on the description of novel mutations in patients with neuromuscular diseases and the application of new technologies to explore the pathogenesis and treatment of congenital myopathies and muscular dystrophies. Dr. Darras is site PI for the consortium conducting Pediatric Neuromuscular Clinical Research in Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and site PI/PD for the NeuroNEXT NINDS Program. He is currently involved in multiple clinical trials of novel genetic interventions for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Linda de Vries is a neonatologist and pediatric neurologist, and obtained her PhD degree in Utrecht (1987). Since 1989, she has worked in the department of Neonatology in the University Medical Center Utrecht, where she is a professor in Neonatal Neurology. Her research focuses on prediction of neurodevelopmental outcome in high risk preterm and full-term newborns, using neurophysiology and neuro-imaging methods. These at risk children are also seen by her in the follow-up clinic until early childhood. She has a special interest in neonatal stroke and brain plasticity. Her work has been published in >400 publications.