(2025-2027)

Dr. Joshua Burns is the Jeweler’s Charity Fund Endowed Chair and Director of the Disability Prevention Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, where he leads a translational research program focused on precision measurement and personalized healthcare for pediatric patients with neurologic diseases and survivors of childhood cancer. His work integrates clinical neuroscience and cancer epidemiology to advance early detection, optimize functional outcomes, and prevent long-term disability. Prior to his appointment at St. Jude in 2024, Dr. Burns served as Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia, where he provided strategic leadership in research and education.

(2025 -2027)

Dr. Kleopa is a Professor and Senior Neurologist at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. He cares for patients with inherited and other neuromuscular diseases. He coordinates the Center for Neuromuscular Disorders delivering multidisciplinary clinical care and providing cutting edge therapeutics. Dr. Kleopa also leads the Neuroscience Department focusing on translational research. His research group has made significant contributions to the understanding of neurological disease mechanisms and to the development of cell-targeted gene therapies for inherited neuropathies and leukodystrophies. His work has been recognized by numerous prestigious Awards including the European Academy of Neurology Investigator Award and the Cyprus National Distinguished Researcher Award. He is a Board Member of the International Charcot-Marie-Tooth and Related Disorders Consortium. He also serves as Member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of the USA CMT Association and of the Gilbert Foundation Neurofibromatosis Gene Therapy Initiative.

(2025-2027)

Mary M. Reilly graduated from University College Dublin in 1986, received her MD in 1996, FRCP in 2002 and FRCPI in 2003. She was appointed a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square in 1998 and a Professor of Clinical Neurology at UCL in 2010. She leads the peripheral nerve clinical and research group and is head of the Division of Clinical Neurology in UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. She runs a research program in the inherited neuropathies encompassing gene identification, pathogenetic studies, natural history studies, development of outcome measures and conducting clinical trials. She is a Past President of the Association of British Neurologists (ABN), a past President of the British Peripheral Nerve Society (BPNS), and a past President of the international Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS). She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2020.

(2025 – 2029)

Dr Kennerson is a Professor of Neurogenetics/Neurosciences with the ANZAC Research Institute, Sydney Local Health District and the Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia. She heads the Translational Gene Discovery and Functional Genomics Inherited Peripheral Neuropathies Program at the ANZAC Research Institute. Her team has discovered several neuropathy genes and is doing pioneering research to investigate the role of structural variation and their role in new disease mechanisms for hereditary neuropathies. Her research program includes functional studies for recent gene (ATP7A and PDK3) and SV mutation (CMTX3 and DHMN1) discoveries using induced pluripotent stem cell derived motor neurons and animal models (C. elegans). Marina is the Scientific Secretariat of the Asian Oceanic Inherited Neuropathy Consortium (AOINC), a member of the International Charcot-Marie-Tooth and Related Neuropathies Consortium (CMTR) Board and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the CMT Research Foundation.

(2021 – 2029)

Dr. Cortese is a neurologist and MRC clinician scientist at the University College London, UK and University of Pavia, Italy. His research focuses on the discovery and modelling of novel causes of CMT, with particular interest in repeat expansion disorders and conditions caused by variations in non-coding DNA. His main impact on the CMT field was the identification of RFC1 repeat expansion and SORD mutation as common causes of inherited neuropathy. Notably, a late-stage trial for the treatment of SORD-CMT is currently active, only two years after the identification of the SORD gene, which, if successful, may represent the first available treatment for patients with CMT.

(2023 -2027)

Dr. Maurizio D’Antonio received his MSc from the University of Milan and his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from University College London. He is currently the Group Leader of the Biology of Myelin Unit at the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, Italy. The D’Antonio lab has a long-standing interest in Schwann cell myelination, and has been using transgenic mouse models to understand the pathomechanisms of various forms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease. His work has been pivotal in identifying the activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) as a key mechanism for many CMT mutations, and his laboratory is now devoted to understand how myelin protein misfolding causes disease, and how the UPR can be targeted for therapeutic intervention. Dr. D’Antonio is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA), and Board member of the International Charcot-Marie-Tooth and Related Neuropathies Consortium (CMTR).

(2023 – 2027)

Dr. Herrmann is Unit Chief of the Neuromuscular Unit & Director of the Peripheral Neuropathy Clinics and Cutaneous Innervation Laboratory at the University of Rochester. Clinically his interests are in the diagnosis and care of patients with various types of peripheral neuropathy. He has a particular interest in inherited neuropathies (Charcot Marie Tooth neuropathy and related disorders). Dr. Herrmann additionally established one of the first cutaneous innervation laboratories in the USA at University of Rochester in 2000, for diagnosis of small fiber neuropathy. Dr. Herrmann’s current research interests include inherited neuropathies and he is Principal Investigator in Rochester for the NIH sponsored Inherited Neuropathy Consortium Rare Disease Clinical Research Center. Dr. Herrmann focuses on new gene identification for inherited neuropathies, development of novel neuropathy outcome measures and biomarkers and experimental therapeutics.

(2025 – 2029)

Dr. McCray is a physician scientist who leads a basic, translational, and clinical research program and also sees patients with neuromuscular disease. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He then completed neurology residency at the Mass General-Brigham Neurology program, followed by a neuromuscular fellowship at Johns Hopkins. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Neurology at the University of Michigan where he serves as Co-Director of Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease clinic and the site PI for the Inherited Neuropathy Consortium. He also leads a research group focused on furthering the understanding and treatment of acquired and inherited forms of peripheral neuropathy with a primary focus on CMT type 2C due to mutations in the calcium-permeable ion channel TRPV4. His lab combines the study of cultured cells and analysis of animal models of disease to elucidate pathways important in the pathogenesis of TRPV4 neuropathy and other forms of neuropathy. He is also involved in clinical and translational research efforts to help bring insights from the bench to patients affected by various forms of hereditary neuropathy. His research was recognized with the 2021 American Neurological Association’s Wolfe Research Prize for Identifying New Causes or Novel Treatment of Neuropathy. He also serves as a member of the scientific advisory board for the CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF). 

(2021 – 2029)

Dr. Isabella Moroni earned her MD and specialization in Neurology at the University of Milan, and since 1995 she was appointed as an associate in Child Neurology at the IRCCS Foundation Neurological Institute Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy. She leads a clinical group whose main research activity is on genetic diseases of central and peripheral nervous system, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and related disorders. Her research programs are focused on definition of new genotype-phenotype correlations, natural history studies and development of outcome measures for children.

(2025 -2029)

Dr. Saporta is a clinician-scientist and neuromuscular specialist with over 15 years of experience in neuromuscular genetics research. He is a Professor of Neurology and Human Genetics and the medical director of the University of Miami CMT Center of Excellence and Muscular Dystrophy Association and Cure SMA Care Centers. Dr. Saporta conducts both clinical and translational research in peripheral neuropathies and he has been a principal investigator in clinical trials for genetic neuropathies.

(2025 -2027)

Dr. Zotter is a PGY4 neurology resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his MD and PhD from New York University. Dr. Zotter completed his graduate thesis in the lab of Jim Salzer focusing on Schwann cell biology and intracellular signaling networks that direct the structural and functional organization of developing peripheral nerves. He is currently working in the lab of Steve Scherer on multiple collaborative projects analyzing rodent models of CMT4A and SORD neuropathy. His ongoing UE5-funded research under the mentorship Dr. Scherer as well as Dr. Beverly Davidson, a pioneer in the field of genetic therapeutics, aims to develop improved viral tools to target Schwann cells for gene therapy in demyelinating CMT. After his residency training, Dr. Zotter will complete a clinical fellowship in neuromuscular medicine at Johns Hopkins University. His goal is to establish himself as a clinician-scientist in the field of inherited peripheral neuropathy and peripheral nerve biology, with a focus on the development of novel genetic therapeutics for the treatment of CMT.