Sylviane Muller, PhD

Professor Sylviane Muller obtained her doctorates in Molecular biology and in Sciences at the University of Strasbourg (France) and focused on immune responses as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology & Epigentics in Freiburg (Germany). She is Professor at the University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS), where she holds the Chair of Therapeutic immunology. She is emeritus Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and former Director of the CNRS Unit Immunopathology and therapeutic chemistry (2001-2017) and also the CNRS Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (2016-2017). She was the Director of the Drug Discovery Center for cancer and inflammation Medalis awarded as a ‘Laboratory of Excellence’ (2011-2020) and, in the continuity, of IMS, the Strasbourg Institute for drug discovery and development (2021-2028; 250 persons). Sylviane Muller was a member of the “Committee for Analysis, Research and Expertise” (CARE) COVID-19 (2020). She is a member of several scientific academic and private advisory boards, including the European Academy of Sciences (2020), the Academia Europaea (2020) and the European Inventor Network. She acted as a partner of several European grants and has received a number of national and international awards (CNRS Silver Medal 2009, CNRS Innovation Award 2015, Léon Velluz Prize from the French Academy of Sciences 2016, finalist of the European Inventor Award 2017, Prix d’honneur of the National Academy of Pharmacy 2022, Prize of the European Inventor Network 2023). She is co-founder of two companies, Neosystem (now Polypeptide France) and ImmuPharma France (now ImmuPharma PLC). She was named as Knight of the French National Order of Legion of Honour (2010), where she was subsequently promoted to Officer in 2021, and Officer of the National Order of Merit (2016).

Sylviane Muller is interested in understanding the molecular and cellular pathways involved in the activation  of autoreactive lymphocytes, the events leading to cell death/living phenomena that are central in auto-inflammatory diseases, and in the fundamental mechanisms of therapeutic responses. With her team, a significant breakthrough was the discovery and patenting of a peptide with immunomodulatory effects that is currently being evaluated in Phase III trials for Lupus and which is proving relevant to other chronic inflammatory diseases. She is (co)author of more than 415 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has filed over 30 patents.

Ricard Cervera, MD, PhD

is Senior Consultant and Head at the Department of Autoimmune Diseases, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Director of the Research Group on Systemic Autoimmune Diseases at the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) of Barcelona, Professor of Medicine-Autoimmune Diseases and Director of the UB-GSK Chair on Autoimmune Diseases, Coordinator of the Masters’ on Autoimmune Diseases and Academic Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Dr. Cervera qualified in Medicine in 1983 from the University of Barcelona and in 1988 obtained his PhD degree for his thesis on anticardiolipin antibodies. His post-doctoral experience included two years at the Lupus Research Unit, The Rayne Institute, St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, England. In 1995, together with Drs. Miguel Ingelmo and Josep Font created the Department of Autoimmune Diseases of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, a pioneering centre in Europe devoted to developing high quality clinical, academic and research work on these conditions.

Dr. Cervera is founder member and Executive Board member of the European Lupus Society and the Spanish Society of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases (current Vice-President) as well as member of the Catalan, Spanish and International Societies of Internal Medicine, the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of London, and Honorary Member of the Argentinian, Mexican, Peruvian, Equatorian, Colombian, Slovak and Hungarian Societies of Rheumatology, and the Society of Clinical Immunology of the Community of Madrid. He is past-coordinator of the European Working Party on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Euro-Lupus Group) (1990-2008) and the European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies (2009-2017) and founder member of the Lupus Academy. He is  also founder member and Executive Committee member of the Antiphospholipid Syndrome Alliance for Clinical Trials and International Networking (APS ACTION) and the Lupus Nephritis Trials Network (LNTN) and co-coordinator of the European multicenter projects PRECISESADS (Molecular reclassification to find clinically useful biomarkers for systemic autoimmune diseases) and 3TR (Taxonomy, Treatment, Targets and Remission).

Dr. Cervera is also the chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Catalan Association of Lupus Patients and Medical Advisor to Lupus Europe (European Federation of Lupus Patient Associations). He has organized many international workshops, symposia and courses on autoimmune diseases, and has been the chairman of the 6^th, 8^th and 11^th International Congresses on Autoimmunity, the 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th Latin-American Congresses on Autoimmunity, the 5^th Meeting of the European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies and the 8^th European Lupus Congress.

Among other distinctions, Dr. Cervera has been awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the National University of Asunción (Paraguay) and has received the Prizes of the “5th European Conference on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus”, EULAR 2003 and EULAR 2005, the Award to the Professional Excellence of the College of Physicians of Barcelona-2014, and the Medal of the Pan American Spirit-2025 from PANLAR.

Dr. Cervera has presented over 1,000 invited lectures and has published more than 1,200 scientific papers (h index: 103), including original articles at New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis and Rheumatism, American Journal of Medicine and Medicine (Baltimore). His academic activities include invited Professorships in several European and Latin-American Universities. He is co-editor of 30 books, including The antiphospholipid syndrome, Systemic Autoimmune Diseases–Diagnosis and Treatment and Autoimmune Disease Diagnosis, among others. He is also member of the Editorial Board of 20 medical journals and Associate Editor of the journals “Lupus Science & Medicine” and “European Journal of Internal Medicine”. His current major research interest includes clinical and epidemiological aspects of systemic autoimmune diseases, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus and the antiphospholipid syndrome, with special focus on its “catastrophic” variant, acting as the coordinator of the “CAPS Registry”.

Dr. Cervera is married with Carme and has two daughters, Marta and Laura. He is also enthusiastically involved in social and cultural activities and is currently the Chairman of the Association of Friends of the Museum of Gavà (Barcelona), Secretary General of the Catalan Federation of Friends of Museums, and member of the Comissió Cívica del Patrimoni del Baix Llobregat.

Zoltán Szekanecz , MD, PhD

Professor Zoltán Szekanecz, MD, PhD, graduated from the University of Debrecen, Hungary in 1988. He then specialized in internal medicine, rheumatology and immunology. He has been the Head of the Department of Rheumatology at University of Debrecen since 2001.

Professor Szekanecz’s major research interests are rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and its comorbidities including cardiovascular alterations in rheumatic diseases, pathogenesis of bone destruction and secondary cancer in rheumatic diseases (oncorheumatology). He is also interested in the molecular mechanisms and clinical effects of targeted therapies including their effects on comorbidities. He has published more than 380 papers in international journals, authored 12 books and published over 100 book chapters. His cumulative impact factor is over 1,450, citations over 27,000 and H-index over 80.

Professor Szekanecz is the past vice-president of EULAR, past president of the Hungarian Society of Rheumatology, a member of four international and 10 Hungarian societies. He is honorary member of the Slovakian and Polish Societies of Rheumatology. He is the founding editor of Immunology Quarterly (Budapest), editorial board member of Arthritis Research Therapy, Autoimmunity Reviews, ACR Rheumatology Open and Joint Bone Spine. He has been involved in more than 100 clinical trials in the field of RA, spondyloarthritis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, scleroderma and lupus.