Austrian and European neurology have lost an exemplary physician and outstanding clinical researcher, a dear colleague and friend: Gregor K. Wenning suddenly and unexpectedly passed away on 11 February 2024. He was an outstanding clinician-scientist and a world leader in the field of multiple system atrophy (MSA) and atypical parkinsonism. His untimely death has left us in shock and deep sadness.
…
Gregor Wenning was born on 21 March 1964 in the town of Horstmar in Westphalia, Germany. At the age of 13 he lost his father, who died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This tragic experience may have been one of the reasons for his decision to enter Medical School at the University of Münster, Germany and devote his medical career to the study of and care for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Gregor was a brilliant student and completed Medical School as a Fellow of the German National Scholarship Foundation. In 1991 he started his subspecialty training in neurology as a resident in the Department of Neurology of Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen (led by Prof. J. Dichgans) and was soon fascinated by neurodegenerative movement disorders.
This special interest made him move to London to join the team of C. David Marsden at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases Queen Square as a research fellow in 1992. Together with his congenial mentor Niall Quinn he wrote his first classic paper on MSA describing the clinical presentation and natural history of the disease, based on 100 autopsy-proven cases. Since its publication in Brain in 1994 it has had close to 1,000 citations, making it one of his 10 most cited articles. In 1996 he obtained a PhD from the University of London for his thesis on multiple system atrophy.
I first met Gregor in his final London year as I was preparing an academic move from the Virchow Hospital in Berlin to take the chair position at the Department of Neurology in Innsbruck, Austria. I invited him to join the Innsbruck department to complete his neurological residency and this marked the beginning of an exceptionally fruitful and productive 25-year period of close collaboration and mutual trust. Despite heavy clinical duties he was able to press on with his research, secure grants and publish a steady flow of papers on a broad range of topics in the field of MSA and atypical parkinsonism. He was promoted to Assistant Professor level in less than five years and in 2006 the Medical University Innsbruck appointed him as Full Professor of Clinical Neurobiology. He seized the opportunity to expand his research lab to a division of Clinical Neurobiology and – together with Nadia Stefanova – turned this into a hub of translational MSA research.
Gregor Wenning has published close to 600 papers with a total of 53,000 citations and his research grants total more than €10m. He initiated and chaired multiple national and international research consortia and networks, including the European MSA Study Group, the MSA Study Group, and the Task Force on Diagnostic Criteria for MSA of the International Movement Disorder Society. He also led an international expert group that designed and validated the Unified MSA Rating Scale (UMSARS), which has since become the standard outcome parameter in clinical MSA trials. Gregor Wenning served on the Board of the Austrian PD and Movement Disorder Society, founded and chaired the Austrian Autonomic Society, served as treasurer of the European Federation of Autonomic Societies (EFAS) and chaired the Research Steering Council of the US MSA Coalition. He received numerous prizes and awards including the Oppenheimer MSA Award and the JP Schouppe Award for lifetime Achievements in MSA Research. As President of the Bishop-Golser Foundation for Research in Atypical Parkinsonism he created a prestigious international award that honours the achievements of outstanding clinicians and scientists in the field and counts such giants as the Nobel Laureate Stanley Prusiner among its recipients.
He was a long-time EAN Member who contributed to the society’s scientific endeavours as a member of both the Scientific Panel on Movement Disorders and the Scientific Panel on Autonomic Nervous System Disorders.
Gregor Wenning was a caring physician driven by a vision to understand the origins of MSA and find a cure for this devastating illness. He motivated and mentored a large number of students and fellows, his energy seemed endless, and his colleagues could always count on his advice and assistance. He was admired for his brilliant mind and loved for his honesty, kindness and humour.
We share the sorrow and grief of his wife Roberta, his two sons and all his family. His colleagues and friends in the global movement disorders community will always remember him in gratitude, admiration and respect.
Werner Poewe MD, emeritus Professor of Neurology
Dept. of Neurology , Medical University Innsbruck , Austria
