Dr. Amit Bar-Or, a neurologist and neuroimmunologist is the Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn/CHOP) and the Melissa and Paul Anderson Professor of Neurology, founder and Director of the Centre for Neuroinflammation and Experimental Neurotherapeutics and Chief, Multiple Sclerosis Division. He is the former Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Associate Director (Clinical and Translational Research) of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital McGill University. Dr. Bar-Or’s clinical focus is Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and related disorders in both adults and children. Dr. Bar-Or runs a cellular and molecular Neuroimmunology lab that studies basic principles of immune regulation and immuneneural interaction, in the context of inflammation, injury and repair of the human central nervous system (CNS). Research themes are directed at understanding principles of immune regulation, elucidation of effector and regulatory mechanisms of distinct immune cell (principally T cell, B cell, and myeloid cell) subsets in CNS inflammatory disease; immune reconstitution, neuro-immune interactions. A particular effort relates to immune monitoring, designing and implementing mechanism of action and biological proof-of-principle studies of emerging therapies, and development of clinically meaningful bio-markers as part of advancing precision medicine in autoimmune and CNS-inflammatory diseases.
Professor Bar-Or has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications, led multiple national and international collaborative research initiatives and is a highly sought after speaker. He is the past President of the Canadian Network of MS Clinics (CNMSC) and past member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), where he continues as a member of the Education Committee. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory and President-Elect of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI) and serves on the Board of Directors of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) and on the Steering Committee of the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN).