
Professor Richard Burt
Chief of Immunotherapy and Autoimmune Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Speaker's biography
Professor Burt's Department, the Division of Immunotherapy and Autoimmune Diseases (DIAD) is the only centre in the world devoted to a unique area of treatment and research utilizing stem cell transplantation in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases and vascular diseases. DIAD pioneered and performed America’s first hematopoietic stem cell transplants to treat: Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Diabetes, Lupus, Crohn’s, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), Phemphigus, Dermatomyositis, Devic’s, Myasthenia Gravis, Polymositis and Scleroderma.
His lecture titled “An update on the MIST (Multiple sclerosis International Stem cell Transplantation) trial” will provide information on the aims and the outcomes of the first and only trial of its kind testing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. As an investigator involved in the trial, Professor Burt can provide unique insights into what this trial means for the future of MS treatment. While the first part of the study demonstrated that this type of stem cell transplantation can be delivered with acceptable safety, the longer-term evaluation is still underway until 2021 and thus an update on the MIST trial will be of great interest to an international audience. Professor Burt will also participate in the panel discussion titled “Should stem cell transplantation be the first-line treatment for multiple sclerosis.”