Yalsizli

Prof.
Özgür Yaldizli, MD

Position(s)
Senior Physician Neurology

Institution
University Hospital Basel

Phone
+41 61 556 55 54

Email

Research Focus

Neurology

Area of Research

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. It is the most common non-traumatic cause of disability in young adults. The pathobiology includes inflammatory and neurodegenerative mechanisms that affect both white and gray matter. These mechanisms are heterogenous and so the disease is. At disease onset, it is almost impossible to predict the individual prognosis of a MS patient. Currently, there are more than ten disease modifying therapies approved for the treatment of MS with different mechanisms of action and varying degrees of efficacy to reduce the risk of a relaps and preserve neurological function. However, their effect on disability progression is (at best) limited. The goal of our initiative is to disentangle the heterogeneity of multiple sclerosis by developing new biomarkers, to quantify disease pathology, to understand the mechanism of disability progression and to investigate the comparative effect of disease modifying drugs on clinical outcomes in multiple sclerosis in real-world. To answer these questions, we use data from two large cohorts, the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Registry governed by the Swiss association for joint tasks of health insurers and the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Cohort Study, the largest multicenter observational study on multiple sclerosis and related neuroinflammatory diseases in Switzerland. Our research group is closely associated to different other multiple sclerosis research groups such as Clinical, cellular and molecular neuroimmunology group (Prof Tobias Derfuss), the translational biomarker research group (Prof Jens Kuhle, Prof David Leppert), the experimental neuroimmunology group (Prof Anne-Katrin Pröbstel), the neuroimaging group (Prof Christina Granziera), the Clinical Trial Unit of the University Hospital and University of Basel (Dr Pascal Benkert, Dr Sabine Schädelin, Dr Pia Neuschwander) and to the Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (Prof Ludwig Kappos).


Approved Research Projects

  • Swiss MS cohort study
  • Comparative analysis of different disease modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis
  • Deep learning to harmonize the contrast of MRI scan acquired on different scanners
  • Detection and therapy of balance deficits in multiple sclerosis using dynamic posturography
  • Dynamics of cortical grey matter lesion and non-lesional abnormalities using advanced MRI techniques, and their clinical relevance in multiple sclerosis

Collaborations

National Collaborations

  • Kantonsspital Aarau (Dr Lutz Achtnichts)
  • University of Berne (Prof Andrew Chan)
  • University of Geneva (Prof Patrice Lalive)
  • CHUV (Prof Caroline Pot, Prof Renaud Du Pasquier)
  • CEO (Prof Claudio Gobbi, Dr Chiara Zecca)
  • Kantonsspital St. Gallen (Dr Stefanie Müller)
  • Department of Biomedical Engineering (Prof. C. Granziera, Basel)
  • Medical Image Analysis Centre Basel (Dr. J. Wuerfel)
  • University of Zurich (Dr Viktor von Wyl)

International Collaborations

  • Charite, Berlin (Prof Friedemann Paul)
  • Kyushu University Hospital (Prof Watanabe, Dr Shoko Fukumoto)
  • University College London (Dr Declan Chard, Dr Rosa Cortese)
  • Universita di Genova (Dr Matteo Pardini)

Ongoing Research Projects

  • Brain MRI T1 weighted gray matter/ normal appearing white matter contrast to differentiate multiple sclerosis from migraine
  • Brain atrophy measurement over a scanner change in a large multiple sclerosis cohort
  • Quantitative MRI to predict progression in multiple sclerosis
  • Brain Choroid Plexus in Multiple Sclerosis vs. Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder
  • Interrupting disease modifying treatment for pregnancy in multiple sclerosis and the effect on disease activity and serum neurofilament light chain
  • Value of serum neurofilament light chain levels as a biomarker of suboptimal treatment response in MS clinical practice
  • Comparative analysis of dimethyl fumarate and teriflunomide in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis
  • Associations between serum NfL and cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis
  • MultiSCRIPT trial: personalized medicine in Multiple SClerosis – pRagmatIc Platform Trial embedded within the Swiss MS Cohort (SMSC)

Research Team

Jannis Müller

Research Fellow

Phone +41 61 328 67 62 
Email

Vera Canova

Research Fellow

Phone   -  
Email

Gizem Tan

Research Fellow

Phone   -  
Email

Dr. med. Tim Sinnecker

Research Fellow

Phone +41 61 328 7520 
Email

Tina Mitrovic

Research Fellow

Phone +41 61 328 45 38 
Email

Prof. John Allum, PhD

Consultant

Phone +41 61 265 20 41 
Email 

Laurent Baumann

Research Fellow

Phone   -
Email

Sophia Reimann

Research Fellow

Phone  -  
Email