The high educational standards of Serono Symposia International Foundation are ensured through its Board of Directors, and through review and approval of the Foundation’s activities by an International Scientific Committee composed of academic experts.

GIANCARLO COMI (President)

was awarded his MD by the University of Milan San Raffaele Medical School in 1973. He has been based in Milan ever since, studying in the field of neurology and holding many posts, including his current one as Professor in Neurology at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation at the Scientific Institute San Raffaele, Milan. He is also the Scientific Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Centres of San Raffaele Hospital and of Az. Ospedaliera “S. Antonio Abate” in Gallarate. He is an active member of many neurological societies, being involved in numerous Steering Committees, and he is currently Vice President of the European Charcot Foundation. In addition, he is the Managing Editor for Topics in Neuroscience and member of the Editorial Boards for many international journals. He has published more than 400 papers, mostly in the area of multiple sclerosis and clinical neurology.

ROBERT FISCHER

is founder and Medical Director of the IVF-unit at the Hamburg Fertility Center, one of the largest and leading German IVF centers. In July 1998 the Fertility which is one of the largest and leading private German IVF centers. In July 1998 the Fertility Center of Hamburg was one of the first centers in Germany and worldwide to introduce certified quality management according to the ISO 9001. In 2002 the IVF-Lab was ISO 17025 certified. Prior to this he was medical director of the first outpatient IVF-unit in Hamburg. Author of numerous publications in national and international scientific journals and books, as well as lectures at conferences worldwide, Professor Fischer is an active member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), Founding member of the European Society of Human Reproduction (ESHRE) and member of its advisory committee as well as Founding member of the “AG Gynäkologische Endokrinologie und Fortpflanzungsmedizin” (DGGEF) and “Berufsverband Reproduktionsmedizinischer Zentren” (BRZ) both in Germany.

DANIEL COHEN

Daniel Cohen, MD, PhD, born in Tunisia in 1951, studied in Paris, first Mathematics then Medicine and finally Immuno genetics, obtaining his PhD while he was working with the Nobel Prize winner Jean Dausset. In the first years of his research activity he pioneered large scale DNA HLA typing and was responsible for the first large HLA DNA workshop. During this HLA period, Daniel Cohen accomplished several original works on complex diseases linked to HLA genes. Among others, he published the first DNA association for Multiple Sclerosis and Narcolepsy. He obtained a full professorship Chair of Medical Genetics at the University of Paris when he was 35, becoming the youngest professor of medicine in France. He founded the CEPH (Centre d’Etude du Polymorphisme Humain), the first institution to organize an international effort on the Human Genome, in 1983 together with Jean Dausset. He launched the first effort to automate a molecular biology experiment in order to generate amount of data compatible with the Genome project which was performed within the framework of an European project, called EUREKA. In 1993 Daniel Cohen and his team completed at Genethon and CEPH the first generation physical map for the entire Human Genome. Between 1990 and 1996 Daniel Cohen authored or co authored several key publications of genes for disease like Type II Diabetes, Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophy, Fragile X, Familial Polyposis, Alzheimer Disease. In 1996, he joined the French company Genset as Chief Scientific Officer to discover genes for complex trait by LD based SNP mapping. Genset developed in August 1998 its first proposal to create a High Density LD SNP map to identify genes for complex traits. Between 2003 and 2005, Daniel Cohen and his team performed the very first whole genome association scans with 100 000 SNPs across three Diseases: Multiple sclerosis, Lupus and Psoriasis, generating and analyzing more than 300 millions genotypes. Daniel Cohen is author or co author of more than 100 peer reviewed publications and patents. For his accomplishments in science, book writing and as a musician, Daniel Cohen received several awards including the French “Legion d’Honneur”.

CHRISTOPH ZIELINSKI

Professor Zielinski is Director of the Clinical Division of Oncology and Chairman of the Department of Medicine I at Medical University Vienna, Austria. He serves as Coordinator of the Center of Excellence for Clinical and Experimental Oncology at the University Hospital Vienna and is President of the Central European Cooperative Oncology Group (CECOG, www.cecog.org). Professor Zielinski completed his medical training at the University Hospital Vienna and began his career with a position as a research fellow at the Cancer Research Center at Tufts University, Boston, USA. His recent clinical research activities cover a wide range of cancer therapies, with particular focus on clinical trials, breast cancer research and treatment and development of targeted drugs.

Professor Zielinski is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). He is on the editorial board of a series of peer review journals that specialize in oncology. He has published over 290 original research papers and reviews in peer-reviewed journals.