Orhan Aktas, MD
Orhan Aktas received his undergraduate training at the universities of Bochum and Strasbourg. After graduation as MD in 1999, he served a neuroimmunology fellowship at the Charité, Humboldt-University of Berlin, and at the Hadassah Medical School, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He started his career in Neurology at the Charité and was appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf in 2008. Since 2013, he is Associate Professor for Molecular Neurology and in charge of the Düsseldorf Multiple Sclerosis Center at the Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University.
Professor Aktas’s clinical and research interests are in the field of basic and clinical neuroimmunology, in particular Multiple Sclerosis (MS) as well as Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and further antibody-mediated variants, particularly MOG-IgGassociated disease (MOGAD).
He has authored or co-authored a large series of primary research articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Cell Biology, Cell, Neuron, JAMA Neurology, Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Lancet, Lancet Neurology and contributed to review articles and editorials in Trends in Neurosciences, Lancet Neurology, Journal of Neurology, and Annals of Neurology.
He has been involved as a principal investigator in international multicentre therapeutic trials in Multiple Sclerosis as well as NMOSD and has designed investigator-initiated trials in translational neuroimmunology. He is also a member of the International MS Visual System Consortium (IMSVISUAL), member of the International Clinical Consortium of The Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation for NMOSD research, as well as co-founder and co-coordinator of the German Neuromyelitis optica Study Group (NEMOS, www.nemos-net.de).
