Working Group 5
Brainstem Clinic (overview brainstem in clinical conditions & new targets for therapies)
Key objectives of the Working Group
a) provide an overview of our current knowledge on the brainstem in clinical conditions,
b) identify new targets for methods development as well as interventions to improve brainstem-related clinical conditions,
c) establish a network of researchers and cohorts for multi-site brainstem MRI and brainstem interventions,
d) foster contacts with policymakers to promote the relevance of brainstem MRI in clinical assessments and therapies.
WG Meetings
Regular meetings: To be scheduled after the first meeting
First meeting: Friday 27th March 2026
Time: 13-14 (CET)
Meeting link: will be sent separately by email to all WG members prior or can be found in the Actions folder
More Information regarding your WG can be found on the Actions folder.
Current projects
WP1: Overview of the clinicopathological landscape of primary human brainstem disorders.
Brainstem disorders are vast – In the first instance I would suggest aiming for a structured review that attempts to parse this universe and provide a focus on primary disorders of adulthood (something similar). The idea is this would avoid “lesional” syndromes or simple visual diagnostics, instead provide a clinical backdrop for the advanced/bespoke imaging methods the Action is focussing on. Clearly prodromal neurodegeneration is a hot topic here, but should also include things like sleep, psychiatric, autonomic, movement, auditory processing etc., Needs quite some thought about how best to structure/collate, and input from lots of different clinical domain expertise. Opportunity to maybe create some structural probability disorder maps from atlases (if feasible)
Primary output:
Paper - Overview of the clinicopathological landscape of primary human brainstem disorders
Teaching content for clinical research update training symposium/session
WP2: Practical steps in setting up studies in brainstem populations
The brainstem is a challenging structure to study. Relying on ‘out of the box’ standard sequences are unlikely to work. It is critical that when planning a study, if brainstem structures are going to be regions of interest, this should be factored in. The idea here is brainstorm these and create a simple outline for any would-be researcher, using the classic “ten simple rule” format
Primary output:
Paper -Ten simple rules for studying brainstem disorders using MRI
Teaching content for clinical research update training symposium/session
WP3: Summarise current methods and open challenges for studying brainstem disease in vivo.
There are already a number of dedicated imaging acquisitions, methods and analysis techniques for studying the brainstem in vivo. The idea here is to provide a structured overview of this for a more clinically orientated research audience. The relative pros and cons for the different techniques will need appraising, and in doing so current gaps or open challenges be identified (e.g. contending with movement/noise, smoothing and effect size discrepancies in small structures, ill-defined boundaries etc.,). Will involve working closely with WG1 and WG3. Requires expertise using different packages/pipelines/modalities
Primary output:
Paper - Current methods and open challenges for studying brainstem disease in vivo
Teaching content for clinical research update training symposium/session
Feed-back between WG1, WG3 and WG5
WP4: Brainstem clinical research network
All clinical facing methods/research critically hinge on being able to cross centres/sites/countries, and often these are key requisites in large grants (e.g. EU Horizon). Furthermore, there is value in being able to pool existing expertise and/or resources. Finally, there are many other existing organisational entities that may value in the outputs from the initiative or other avenues we could use to promote and disseminate the work (e.g. conferences). How best to achieve this needs to be defined by the WP4 team.
Primary output:
Brainstem clinical research network
Multisite linked cohorts/capabilities
Directory of resources
Opportunities to deliver output to broader audience
Members of the Working Group
Fatma Ebru Algul
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
İnönü University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Anita Arsovska
Member
Institution affiliation:
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje
Country of affiliation:
North Macedonia (MK)
Anja Beqaj
Member
Institution affiliation:
University of Medicine Tirana
Country of affiliation:
Albania (AL)
Joana Cabral
Member
Institution affiliation:
University of Minho
Country of affiliation:
Portugal (PT)
Giovanni d'Avossa
Member
Institution affiliation:
Bangor University
Country of affiliation:
United Kingdom (UK)
Herberto Dhanis
Member
Institution affiliation:
University College London
Country of affiliation:
United Kingdom (UK)
Grazia Daniela Femminella
Member
Institution affiliation:
Universita Degli Studi Di Napoli Federico II
Country of affiliation:
Italy (IT)
Filippo Sean Giorgi
Member
Institution affiliation:
Universita Di Pisa
Country of affiliation:
Italy (IT)
Evrim GOZ
Member
Institution affiliation:
TARSUS UNIVERSITY
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Heidi Jacobs
Member
Institution affiliation:
Massachusetts General Hospital
Country of affiliation:
United States (US)
Christian Lambert
WG5 Lead, MC Core Member
Institution affiliation:
University College London
Country of affiliation:
United Kingdom (UK)
Anna Letournel
Member
Institution affiliation:
Instituto Politecnico De Setubal
Country of affiliation:
Portugal (PT)
Claire O'Callaghan
Member
Institution affiliation:
The University Of Sydney
Country of affiliation:
Australia (AU)
Esin Ozturk Isik
Member
Institution affiliation:
Bogazici University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Igor Petrusic
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
Faculty of Physical Chemistry, University of Belgrade
Country of affiliation:
Serbia (RS)
Hristina Popovska
Member
Institution affiliation:
University Clinic of Neurology, UKIM,Skopje
Country of affiliation:
North Macedonia (MK)
Bekir Rovčanin
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
Clinical CenterUniversity of Sarajevo
Country of affiliation:
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)
Abdurrahman Sonmezler
Member
Institution affiliation:
Gaziantep Sehir Hastanesi
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Galit Weinstein
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
University of Haifa
Country of affiliation:
Israel (IL)
Elona Zhiva
Member
Institution affiliation:
Fakulteti i Shkencave Mjekesore Teknike
Country of affiliation:
Albania (AL)
Sirin Yagmur Abaci
Member
Institution affiliation:
Bogazici University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Tuncer Acar
Member
Institution affiliation:
Selcuk Universitesi
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Özlem Acar
Member
Institution affiliation:
Selcuk Universitesi
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Neşe Ayşit
Member
Institution affiliation:
Istanbul Medipol University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Magdalena Budisteanu
Member
Institution affiliation:
Prof. Dr. Alex. Obregia Clinical Hospital of Psychiatry
Country of affiliation:
Romania (RO)
Kübra Canlı
Member
Institution affiliation:
Karadeniz Teknik Universitesi
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Martin J. Dahl
Member
Institution affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Country of affiliation:
Germany (DE)
Pinar Gencpinar
Member
Institution affiliation:
Izmir Biyotip Ve Genom Merkezi
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Remy Guillevin
Member
Institution affiliation:
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire De Poitiers
Country of affiliation:
France (FR)
Şahi Nur KALKIŞIM
Member
Institution affiliation:
Karadeniz Teknik Universitesi
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Timothy Lawn
Member
Institution affiliation:
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Country of affiliation:
United States (US)
Mareike Ludwig
Member
Institution affiliation:
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Country of affiliation:
Germany (DE)
MAKRI MARINA
Dissemination Manager, MC Core Member
Institution affiliation:
Greek Association of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disoders
Country of affiliation:
Greece (EL)
Valeria Oliva
Member
Institution affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (National Institute of Health)
Country of affiliation:
Italy (IT)
Lucia Penalba Sánchez
Member
Institution affiliation:
OTTO-VON-GUERICKE UNIVERSITAET MAGDEBURG
Country of affiliation:
Germany (DE)
Paola Pina
Member
Institution affiliation:
University of Elbasan 'Aleksander Xhuvani'
Country of affiliation:
Albania (AL)
Roberta Sclocco
Member
Institution affiliation:
Harvard Medical School
Country of affiliation:
United States (US)
Xhoela Shtembari
Member
Institution affiliation:
Qendra Shendetesore Nr. 1
Country of affiliation:
Albania (AL)
Marianna Tsatali
Member
Institution affiliation:
Alzheimer Hellas
Country of affiliation:
Greece (EL)
Büşra Zencirci
Member
Institution affiliation:
Adiyaman University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Safa Mete Dagdas
Member
Institution affiliation:
Sağlık Bilimleri Universty
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Funda Dinc
Member
Institution affiliation:
Mugla Sitki Kocman University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Petr Dusek
Action Vice Chair
Institution affiliation:
Univerzita Karlova
Country of affiliation:
Czech Republic (CZ)
Mansoureh Fahimi
Member
Institution affiliation:
Boston Scientific Limited
Country of affiliation:
Ireland (IE)
Jan Fousek
Member
Institution affiliation:
Masaryk University - CEITEC – Central European Institute of Technology
Country of affiliation:
Czech Republic (CZ)
Leen HAKKI
Member
Institution affiliation:
Bogazici University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Kristian Jongari
Member
Institution affiliation:
Urgjenca Mjekesore Divjake
Country of affiliation:
Albania (AL)
Ömer Kartal
Member
Institution affiliation:
University of Health Sciences, Umraniye Training and Research Hospital
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Veronica Mäki-Marttunen
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
Oslo Universitetssykehus Hf
Country of affiliation:
Norway (NO)
Hanna Palahuta
Member
Institution affiliation:
Uzhhorod National University
Country of affiliation:
Ukraine (UA)
Joana Pinto
Member
Institution affiliation:
Siemens Healthineers AG
Country of affiliation:
Germany (DE)
Ramit Ravona- Springer
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
Medical Research Infrastructure Development And Health Services Fund By The Sheba Medical Center
Country of affiliation:
Israel (IL)
Irena Rektorova
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
Masaryk University - CEITEC – Central European Institute of Technology
Country of affiliation:
Czech Republic (CZ)
Orjon Rroji
MC Member
Institution affiliation:
European University of Tirana
Country of affiliation:
Albania (AL)
Michael Sommerauer
Member
Institution affiliation:
University Hospital Bonn
Country of affiliation:
Germany (DE)
Burcu Talu
Member
Institution affiliation:
Inonu University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Adnan YUKSEL
Member
Institution affiliation:
Biruni University
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
RUKİYE ÇİFTÇİ
Member
Institution affiliation:
GAZİANTEP İSLAM BİLİM VE TEKNOLOJİ ÜNİVERSİTESİ
Country of affiliation:
Türkiye (TR)
Christian Lambert
WG5 Lead, MC Core Member
Institution affiliation:
University College London
Country of affiliation:
United Kingdom (UK)