2024 MDS Awardees

In 2012, she moved to Grenoble, France, as full Professor of Neurology at the Grenoble Alpes University (UGA). She is currently the Director of the Movement Disorders Center, and the Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurological Rehabilitation, and Forensic Medicine at the CHUGA. At the UGA, she is also responsible of the International Relationship of the Faculty of Medicine. Her main research has been focused on understanding and optimizing effects of neuromodulation techniques to treat movement disorders, particularly in the field of deep brain stimulation. She has 263 papers indexed in PubMed. Prof. Moro has trained several medical students, PhD students, and neurology fellows. Over the years, she has been actively involved in several international academic societies. Specifically, in the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, she has been chair and member of several Task Forces, groups of interest, and committees. She has been very active in the European Section of the MDS, lately involved in the new guideline production for Parkinson’s disease management. She is currently the President of the European Academy of Neurology (2024-2026), in which she has previously served in several leading positions. Over the last several years, she has been promoting awareness and research in diversity in people with neurological disorders; she has also encouraged gender equality and support for women neurologists. 

His areas of interest are Parkinson’s disease, ataxias, rare movement disorders, functional movement disorders, infection related movement disorders, Human Motor physiology, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, advanced neuroimaging and genetics.  He is one of the pioneers in the use of intra-parotid Botulinum toxin injection for treatment of drooling of saliva in PD.  Dr. Pal has been instrumental in setting up the Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorder subspeciality at NIMHANS. Over the past 2 decades, he has mentored multiple batches of students pursuing DM in Neurology, PhD students in Neuroscience, post-doctoral fellows in movement disorders and conducted research at the national and international levels.  He has over 500 publications in peer reviewed journals and books.  
Dr. Pal has made significant contributions to Neurology and in particular Movement Disorders in India.  He served as Treasurer and President of the Indian Academy of Neurology and played a pivotal role in forming the Movement Disorders Society of India (MDSI) in 2014.  He was the Founding Secretary of MDSI and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of a dedicated journal of the society-‘Annals of Movement Disorders’.  He has held the posts of President of Parkinson’s Disease Society of Karnataka, Secretary of the Neuromodulation Society (India) and founding member of the Parkinson Research Alliance of India (PRAI). More recently, Dr. Pal started the Indian Rare Movement Disorders Consortium and is working on developing the National Parkinson Network (a subgroup of MDSI), with special emphasis on Early Onset Parkinson’s Disease. He is currently the President-Elect of the Movement Disorders Society of India. Dr. Pal has been a member of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) since 2001. Over the years, he has actively contributed in various capacities - Member of the Education Committee of MDS-AOS (2013-2017), Editorial Board of Movement Disorders journal (2015-2017), Secretary-Elect (2017-2019) and Secretary (2019-2021) of MDS-AOS. He was instrumental in bringing together multiple affiliate societies of MDS-AOS for collaborative networking. 

Dr. Pal is a member of the Education Committee of MDS since 2019 and is currently the Chair of the Committee. His leadership and involvement in programs such as Train the Trainer, Career Development and Centre to Centre, have helped many members enhance their skills in Movement Disorders.  
Dr. Pal also serves as Chair of the Infection Related Movement Disorders Study Group and member of Rare Movement Disorders Study Group, Neurophysiology Study Group, Movement Disorders in Asia Study Group, Ataxia Study Group and Rating Scales Education and Training Program Committee and Tic Disorders Task Force.  

Prof. Rosales obtained his medical degree from UST and his doctorate in Neuroscience from Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan. He authored his thesis on Experimental BoNT Effects in Extrafusal and Intrafusal Muscles: Neurophysiology and Pathology. He has also completed several fellowship programs, including in neuromuscular and movement disorders at Kagoshima University Department of Neurology and Geriatrics and in the Dystonia Center, Columbia University and The Mayo Clinic Neuromuscular Electrophysiology Center in the United States. 

Prof. Rosales has been actively involved in many roles within MDS, most notably as the Chair of the Asian and Oceanian Section (MDS-AOS) of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society. 

Prof. Wu’s research interests are genetics and non-motor features of Parkinson’s disease (PD).  She is also interested in the animal studies of the mechanisms underlying dopaminergic neuronal death and neuroprotection.  She and her collaborative researchers in the world recently identified LRR2 G2385R and R1628P as risk factors for PD in Asian population.

She has served in various roles for the Society, most notably as Chair of the MDS Asian and Oceanian Section. She has played a key role in organizing the 3rd Asian and Oceanian Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Congress (AOPMC) in Taipei in 2011. 

She is the initiator and head of the UMCG Expertise Centre for Movement Disorders Groningen, an official expertise centre for rare movement disorders and a member of the European reference network (ERN)- rare neurological disorders. She has held several leadership positions including chair of the clinical line of the European COST platform Dystonia (2011- 2016) and WP leader ‘Expert Care Coordination’ in the ERN (2016-2022). Currently, she is secretary of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. 

Her research line ‘Hyperkinetic movement disorders’ is from basic research to patient care. To facilitate clinical diagnostics using new genetic possibilities she published diagnostic algorithms for dystonia and myoclonus. Basic research is focused on genetic aspects and new dystonia and myoclonus genes were described. With neurophysiological and imaging studies she aims to improve diagnostic procedures and to gain inside in the pathophysiology of movement disorders. 

Over the years she supervised several PhD and medical students, research fellows, and neurologists performing a clinical fellowship. She regularly is member of PhD defending committees and gives lectures, teaching courses, and organizes national and international congresses. She supervised more than 30 PhD theses covering clinical and translational research in relation to hyperkinetic movement disorders with a special focus on dystonia, myoclonus, startle and functional movement disorders. Under her supervision the UMCG is official training site of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. 
The most prestigious grants awarded to her are the NWO-VIDI Laureate (2004-2009) for the project. “Myoclonic Dystonia: borderland between neurology and psychiatry”, the European Regional Development Fund (SNN 2018-2022), ZONMW-Top (2019-2024) and the NWO-domain TTW Open technology program 2022 (2024-2028) all for the project ‘Next generation phenotyping: the next move in Movement Disorders’. This NEMO project focuses on the use of machine learning to discriminate different movement disorder phenotypes.
 

She is the John H. Ware 3rd Endowed Professor in Alzheimer's Research, Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, and the Marian S. Ware Center for Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Program. Dr. Lee identified tau, alpha-synuclein and TDP-43 as disease proteins that form unique inclusions in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and frontotemporal degeneration/Lou Gehrig’s disease, respectively, and has advanced understanding of their roles in these disorders. Together with her late husband John Q. Trojanowski, Lee's studies challenged conventional belief that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by aggregation of amyloid plaques and pointed to the tau protein as a major player. Dr. Lee’s h-index is 235 and she is listed among the 10 most highly cited AD researchers from 1985-2008 and among the top 400 most highly influential biomedical researchers from 1996-2011. ISI has recognized Dr. Lee as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher and places her in the top 10 most highly cited neuroscientists from 1997 to 2007.Dr. Lee has been ranked 3 among Top Female Scientists for 2024 and awarded 2024 Best Female Scientist Award by Research.com. She received the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and 2024 Rainwater Prize.