Verena Staedtke, MD, PhD (Activity Chair)
Director of Pediatric Neurofibromatosis
The Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center
Associate Professor of Neurology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

Dr. Staedtke received her degrees from the Charite, Medical School of the Humboldt and Free University in Berlin (Germany).  She completed her pediatric neurology residency and UCNS neuro-oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins and became a member of the Neurology Faculty in 2015.  Now an Associate Professor, Dr. Staedtke serves as the Director of Pediatric Neurofibromatosis (NF) at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Neurofibromatosis Center, where she leads the pediatric NF program and cares for children and adolescents with NF.  In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Staedtke leads a research laboratory focusing on the discovery of novel antineoplastic therapeutics for nervous system tumors and gene therapy development for NF. Dr. Staedtke received the Francis Collins Scholar Research Award, the 2018 Sontag Foundation Distinguished Scientist Award,  NCI K08 and U01 award in addition to other federal and private funding support.  

Michael J. Fisher, MD
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA

Dr. Michael Fisher is Professor of Pediatrics (Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania), Chief of the Neuro-Oncology Section (Division of Oncology), Director of the Neurofibromatosis (NF) Program, and the Hubert J.P. and Anne Faulkner Schoemaker Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  His research focuses on identifying new treatments and novel biomarkers (particularly using new imaging modalities) and exploring functional outcomes for children with tumors associated with NF1.  Dr. Fisher is Chair of the Steering Committee, and previously was Chair of the Plexiform Neurofibroma Committee, of the Department of Defense NF Clinical Trials Consortium. He is a member of the Steering Committee and former Chair of the Visual Outcomes Committee for REiNS (Response Evaluation in Neurofibromatosis and Schwannomatosis), an international effort to develop standardized outcome measures for clinical trials.

Nicole Ullrich, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Dr. Ullrich completed her medical and graduate degrees at Yale University followed by residency in Pediatrics and Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she then did her fellowship in NeuroOncology before joining the faculty in the Department of Neurology.  Her research focuses on neurologic and oncologic complications of NF1 and the long-term neurologic complications of childhood systemic cancer and brain tumors.  Dr. Ullrich has been involved in the design and execution of several clinical trials for complications of NF1 through the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium, where she is currently the site principal investigator for the Harvard site that includes Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital.  Within the consortium, she is former chair of the Low Grade Glioma committee and currently co-chair of the Neurocognitive Committee.  She serves as co-Chair of the Clinical Research Award committee and is a member of the Clinical Care Advisory Board for the Children’s Tumor Foundation.  Lastly, she serves on the board of NF Northeast. Dr. Ullrich recently participated in the international working groups to revise and update the diagnostic criteria for the neurofibromatoses and in the updated AAP health supervision guidelines for children with NF1.

In accordance with the Food and Drug Administration, the speakers have disclosed that there is the potential for discussions concerning off-label uses of a commercial product/device during this educational activity.

Any person who may contribute to the content of this continuing education activity must disclose relevant relationships (and any known relationships of their spouse/partner) with commercial interests whose products or services are discussed in educational presentations. A  commercial interest is defined as an entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on patients. Relevant relationships include receiving from acommercial interest research grants, consultant fees, travel, other benefits, or having a self-managed equity interest in a company.

Disclosure of a relationship is not intended to suggest or condone any bias in any presentation but is made to provide participants with information that might be of potential importance to their evaluation of a presentation.

PLANNERS
Verena Staedtke, MD, PhD–has no relevant financial relationships to disclose in relation to the content of this activity.
Bryan C. Taylor, PharmD—has no relevant financial relationships to disclose in relation to the content of this activity.

PRESENTERS
Verena Staedtke, MD, PhD–has no relevant financial relationships to disclose in relation to the content of this activity.
Michael J. Fisher, MD– has disclosed that he is a consultant for AstraZeneca and SpringWorks. He receives Grant/Research support from AstraZeneca and Array BioPharma Inc.
Nicole Ullrich, MD, PhD– has disclosed that she is a consultant for Peer Review Institute for Medical Education. 

PEER REVIEWER
Miriam Bornhorst, MD—has disclosed she is a consultant for AstraZeneca.