Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board

William R. Bauer M.D., Ph,D., FAA.N.- Co-Chair, SAB

William Bauer received his MD   degree from the National University of Ireland, University College of Dublin and his PhD in neuroscience from University of Toledo. He trained in Neurology (under Simon Horenstein), at Case Western University. He has served as Associate professor of Neurology, Anatomy and Neurosciences at the University of Toledo.  He is a board certified Neurologist, psychiatry and Pain Medicine. He us a member of the American Academy of Neurology, AMA, Society for Neurosciences, APS, American Academy of Pain Medicine, and Myofascial Pain Management. Dr. Bauer has been in private practice for over 20 years specializing in neurology and pain treatment and has been involved in clinical trials, therapeutic legislative guidelines and recommendations

His early academic research concentrated on neuropathic pain in the rodent trigeminal system, including single cell recordings and studies involving infraorbital nerve, trigeminal nuclei, thalamus, and cortex. Focusing on producing proximal root and more distal infraorbital nerve lesions that simulate trigeminal neuropathic pain. More recent his work concentrated on functional and structural magnetic resonance changes associated with low back pain, complex regional pain, pain and multiple sclerosis.  Also evaluating structural cortical changes associated with amputation patients and also looking at functional and structural changes associated with stump pain and phantom pain.

In the clinic Bill has been involved in the study of therapeutic approaches to migraine headaches, cerebral vascular disease (Stroke), multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral spinal fluid obstruction or hydrocephalus, pain, phantom pain, and stroke with development of TPA.protocols for use in northern Ohio. Furthermore, his pain research has concentrated on functional and structural imaging of patients with complex regional pain and low back pain and involvement with molecular interventions to reduce or alter these pain patterns and structural changes.

Dr. Hans-Christoph Diener MD, PhD

Professor of Neurology and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University of Essen in Germany, Chairman of the Essen Stroke Center, the Essen Vertigo and Dizziness Center and the Intensive Care Unit.

Dr. Diener received his medical degree and doctorate at the Albrecht-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, and continued his training there in the Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine and Surgery. Prior to joining the University of Essen, he was an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Department of Neurology at the University of Tübingen. He was also a visiting Professor at the Neurological Sciences Institute in Portland, Oregon in 1984 and 1985 and at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 1987 and 1988.

Dr. Diener’s special research interests focus on stroke, headache and cerebellar physiology. He has set up the first acute stroke unit in Germany in 1995. He was and is the principal investigator of major trials in the acute therapy and prevention of stroke (ESPS2, MATCH, PRoFESS, SWIFT-PRIME, RESPECTUS-ESUS) and participated in the recent trials on NOACs in stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. Dr. Diener is responsible for several multi-centre stroke registries.

Prof. Diener has authored or co-authored 858 articles in peer reviewed journals (179 as first author, 19 in the NEJM), 310 invited reviews, and 332 book chapters, and served as the editor or author of 77 books. His h index is 99. He is the editor of Aktuelle Neurologie, Stroke News, Kopfschmerz News and Arzneimitteltherapie, deputy editor of Cephalalgia and serves on the editorial boards of Lancet Neurology, Cerebrovascular Diseases, Future Neurology, The International Journal of Clinical Practice, European Neurology, Reviews in Contemporary Pharmacotherapy and Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr.Ru Rong Ji, PhD.

Distinguished Professor at Duke School of Medicine, Duke University  Center, Professor of Anesthesiology and Neurobiology and Chief of Pain Research

Ru-Rong has been doing pain and neuroscience research for 25 years. His current research focuses on chronic pain mechanisms and development of novel pain therapeutics. His group studies how neuroinflammation, glial cells, and ion channels regulate sensory neuron excitability and spinal cord synaptic transmission in chronic pain. He has extensive expertise in animal models of inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain and also in studying synaptic plasticity and neuron-glial interactions. He is internationally recognized for demonstrating important roles of MAP kinase signaling pathways and glial cells in the pathogenesis of chronic pain. His group has shown unique mechanisms of chemokines, cytokines, miRNAs, resolvins, Nav1.7, neuronal TLRs, and stem cells in pain regulation. Ru-Rong has published 160 peer-reviewed papers, including many papers in top medical and neuroscience journals. He also serves on editorial boards of Pain, Anesthesiology, Neuroscience and Neuroscience Bulletin.

His major research interests include: (a) Pathogenesis of pain via neural-glial interactions:  (b)Resolution of pain by anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution mediators: (c) Molecular mechanisms of itch.

Dr. Ji received his PhD degree at Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He had postdoctoral research trainings with renowned scientists including Ji-Sheng Han (Peking University, Beijing), Tomas Hokfelt (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm), and Clifford Woolf (Harvard Medical School, Boston). Before joining Duke Faculty in 2012, he had been a faculty member at Harvard Medical School for 13 years as Instructor/Assistant Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital (1999-2003) and Assistant Professor/Associate Professor (2003-2012) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Fan Wang, PhD.

Associate Professor of Neurobiology and  Cell Biology. Duke School of Medicine, Duke University

Dr, Wang conducted her Graduate work under the guidance of  Dr. Richard Axel at Columbia University, where she described the  projections of olfactory sensory neurons expressing a given odorant receptor, revealing the topographic olfactory sensory map in the olfactory bulb. Subsequently her doctoral work is highlighted in Dr. Richard Axel’s Nobel Prize lecture in 2004.  Dr. Wang conducted her postdoctoral training in Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s lab at Stamford University working on molecular mechanisms that regulate the axon growth of trigeminal sensory neurons in mice.

Dr Wang’s. research goal is to understand how the brain generates percepts, with a focus on touch and pain perceptions.. Work in her laboratory evolved from studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural development to understanding neural circuit mechanism underlying sensory and motor behaviors. In particular, focusing on the orofacial touch, pain, and movement circuits. The touch and pain sensation of the face are mediated by trigeminal sensory neurons, and the facial movements are controlled by various cranial moto-neurons. Dr. Wangs’ laboratory has developed/implemented novel molecular and viral tools including transsynaptic tracing tools and activity-dependent methods, and  have been using those in combination with electrophysiology and calcium imaging approaches to map the facial sensory and motor control circuits  to manipulate functions of specific types of sensory neurons or pre-motor neurons. In recent years, extended the research into second and third order brain centers to understand how these regions process orofacial touch and pain sensation, as well as in how neural circuits change connectivity and functions in pathological conditions such as chronic pain, autism etc.

Dr. Jon Levine, MD, PhD

Professor, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco

Jon D. Levine received a PhD in neuroscience from Yale University  and an MD degree from the University of California at San Francisco . He trained in Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology (under Jack Stobo), and in Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (under Henry Bourne) (UCSF). He has been on the faculty at UCSF since and has been a Professor (Medicine, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Neuroscience) since 1993. Dr. Levine’s research interests are in the area of pain and analgesia. He has been the recipient of several academic awards including: Young Investigator of the International Association of Pain, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of Academic Professors, Guest Investigator in the ARC Muscle Mechanisms Laboratory (Oxford University), Chancellor’s Commendation for Research Excellence (University of California, San Francisco), Hartford foundation fellow, Most Important New Research in Rheumatic Diseases (NIH Annual Report to Congress), Frederick J. Kerr award of the American Pain Society and Rita Allen Foundation fellow. He has published over 400 basic science and clinical articles in this area, funded by the National Institutes of Health. The areas of Dr. Levine’s research include elucidation of the transducers, second messenger systems and ionic channel mediating inflammatory, neuropathic and chronic widespread pain syndromes, the role of neuroimmune mechanisms in pain and inflammation, the mechanism of placebo analgesia, and sex differences in pain and analgesia.

Dr Levine has employed a multidisciplinary approach — molecular, biochemical, in vitro and in vivo electrophysiological, behavioral and clinical — to evaluate mechanisms underlying pain, analgesia. I have extensive expertise in investigating signal transduction mechanisms for mechanical, thermal and chemical stimulus-induced activation of sensory neurons and mechanisms underlying sensitization of responses to these stimuli.