The title of the RRFS Special Session of this year is “Unleash your potential with EAN”. The session was chaired by Dr. Giovanni Di Liberto, neuroimmunologist and Chair of the Resident and Research Fellow Section of the EAN. The idea behind this session is to provide some example of successful careers boosted by EAN fellowships and encourage RRFS members to take advantage of this great opportunity. In this session, we hosted colleagues awarded with an EAN clinical or research grants in the past years and a successful story.
Dr. Alberto Vogrig is an Italian neurologist working at the French reference center for paraneoplastic Neurological Syndromes in Lyon where he specialized in paraneoplastic encephalitis. He was awarded the clinical fellowship 2017 and he had the opportunity to visit the neuroimmunology unit in Lyon under the supervision of Professor Jerome Honnorat. Dr. Vogrig provided useful tips for fellowship applicants and he explained how this grant gave him the opportunity to advance in his career in neuroimmunology.
Dr. Bettina Balint is a German neurologist currently working at the University College of London specialized in autoimmune movement disorders. She was awarded the EAN research fellowship grant in 2017 and could visit the prestigious Neuroimmunology research center in Oxford under the supervision of Professor Sarosh Irani and Angela Vincent. Her talk was extremely useful since she provided insight into her experience and some suggestions for people wanting to pursue a career as clinician scientist as well as some advice on how to balance Science, Clinical work and private life.
Dr Filipa Ladeira is a Portuguese neurologist specialized in multiple sclerosis. Dr. Ladeira was awarded the EAN clinical fellowship in 2018 which give her the opportunity to work in neuroimmunology under the supervision of Professor Isabel Leite in Oxford. She provided a detailed description of the clinical center she visited and how the knowledge she acquired was helpful to better diagnose patients with rare autoimmune neurological disorders when she went back to Lisbon.
All the presentations were excellent and provided remarkable career examples which took advantage of EAN to start academic careers. The key factor for a successful application is definitely to plan in advance your application and follow your research or clinical interest. The session was chaired by Dr. Giovanni Di Liberto, neuroimmunologist and Chair of the Resident and Research Fellow Section of the EAN.
