EU-NN Board

Prof. Giuseppe Plazzi, President

Giuseppe Plazzi is professor of neurology at the Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy. He is the director of the panel of reviewers of scientific products for the medical area at the University of Bologna (valutazione della ricerca di Ateneo – VRA). He is head of the sleep laboratories and of the outpatient clinic for narcolepsy and CNS hypersomnias of the University of Bologna and of the Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna. Giuseppe Plazzi received his MD degree from the University of Bologna in 1988 and then his specialization in Neurology. He trained in neurology, neurophysiology and sleep medicine in Bologna. He has authored over 300 scientific publications (CI>11000 (Scopus); H-index: 54). He has been a visiting professor at Stanford University, California. His main area of scientific interest and expertise focuses to the clinical aspects and to the pathophysiology of narcolepsy: he coordinates a multidisciplinary research group and he is chief of the scientific advisory board of the Italian association of narcoleptic patients (AIN). He also contributed to the clinical, polysomnographic, epidemiological and genetic definition of several sleep disorders and to the polysomnographic characterization of sleep in neurological diseases. He has been granted from the Italian ministries of research and of health for several research projects in the field of narcolepsy.

Prof. Yves Dauvilliers, Vice President

Prof. Yves Dauvilliers is a director of the Sleep Disorders Centre, Department of Neurology, Gui de Chauliac Hospital, Montpellier since 2005, coordinator of the National Reference Network for Orphan Diseases: Narcolepsy and Idiopathic Hypersomnia.
He became a specialist in Neurology, Montpellier University, 1995, obtained univ. diploma, “Clinical Neurophysiology”, Montpellier, 1997, “Wake and Sleep”, France, 1998, wrote medical thesis, “Genetic and familial aspects of narcolepsy”, Montpellier, 2000 and PhD thesis in Neurosciences, “Neurobiology and Genetics of Narcolepsy”, Montpellier, 2004. He became a Professor of Neurology-Physiology in 2008. He obtained post doc training at Centre d’études du sommeil, Hopital du Sacré-Coeur, Montreal, Canada, 2006 and -HUG Belle Idée, Neuropsychiatric Division, Chene-Bourg, Switzerland, 1999, 2001
He serves as a reviewer for Lancet, NEJM, Brain, Annals of Neurology, Neurology, Journal of Neurology, Neuropsychiatry and Neurosurgery, Sleep, Journal of Sleep Research, Sleep Medicine, Brain, Archives of Internal Medicine, Editor in Chief for the journal: Frontiers in Neurology, Section “Sleep and Chronobiology”. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the journal: Sleep Medecine, SLEEP, Sleep Medicine Review and behavioural neurology.
He is a member of Scientific Committee of the EU NN, ESRS, SFRMS, AASM, Co-chair of the Centre of Excellence in neurodegeneration, Montpellier, Coordinator Axis Central Hypersomnia – GDR Sleep, Vice-President of EU RLS Study Group.
The main domains of his research are studies in the diagnosis, epidemiology, pathophysiology and therapy of sleep disorders related to neurological disorders including narcolepsy, hypersomnias, parasomnia, insomnia, Parkinson, Alzheimer and RLS.
Prof. Dauvilliers is a author or coauthor of 459 papers published in international and national peer-reviewed journals (including Lancet, Lancet Neurol, Science, Nature Genetic), h index: 67 WOS.

Prof. Eva Feketeová, Secretary

Eva Feketeová is an associate professor of neurology at the University of P. J. Šafárik, Medical Faculty in Košice, Slovakia. She is a head of the Sleep laboratory and of the outpatient clinic for rare hypersomnias of the University Hospital of L. Pasteur, Košice. Eva Feketeová received her MD degree from the University of P. J. Šafárik, Košice in 1995, in 1999, 2007 specialization in Neurology, 2008 PhD, 2012 accreditation in Sleep Medicine by Czech Sleep Med. Society, 2020 habilitation. Her main area of interest and expertise focuses to the clinical aspects of narcolepsy and borderland disorders, and epileptology. In 2014 she became a member of European Narcolepsy Network. She is a member of national scientific societies: head of Slovak League Against Epilepsy and vicehead of Slovak Society of Sleep Medicine. She is an author and co-author of publications orcid.org/0000-0002-7746-3797 She is a board member for Certified work activity: Polysomnography at the University of P. J. Šafárik, Košice, she organizes courses of EEG and clinical epileptology by Slovak League Against Epilepsy and Slovak Neurological Society.

Dr. Anna Heidbreder, Treasurer

Anna Heidbreder is a neurologist and sleep physician currently as a senior consultant and deputy head of the sleep laboratory at the Department of Neurology at the Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria). After her studies, which she completed at the Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany), she did her specialist training as a neurologist at the Department of Neurology at the University of Münster (Germany). She has been involved in sleep medicine for 15 years. Her scientific focus is on diseases with excessive daytime sleepiness and central disorders of hypersomnolence. Her habilitation paper dealt with the subject of idiopathic hypersomnia. She is a member of national and international scientific societies and author and coauthor of numerous publications. Since 2020 she is a member of the board of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine. She started to cooperate with EU-NN in 2013.

Dr. Christelle Peyron, Chair Scientific Committee

Christelle Peyron is a neuroscientist, director of research at the center for research in neuroscience of Lyon (CRNL), University of Lyon1 in France. She is the co-leader of the SLEEP lab at the CRNL and the leader of the research group on narcolepsy.

She participated to the discovery of the hypocretins neuropeptides (also called orexins) while a post-doctoral fellow with TS Kilduff at Stanford university (California), then showed that hypocretin neuropeptides are missing in narcoleptic patients while a post-doc with Emmanuel Mignot (Stanford university, California). She received the 1997 and 1998 young scientist awards from the American Association of Sleep Medicine and the 2000 price of excellence for young scientists from the Sleep Research Society (USA).

Dr. Markus Schmidt, Chair Teaching Committee

Dr. Markus Schmidt works as Senior Physician, Deputy Head of the Sleep-Wake-Epilepsy Center, Department of Neurology, Schlaf-Wach-Epilepsie Zentrum, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Switzerland. He is the former Medical Director at the Ohio Sleep Medicine Institute in Columbus, Ohio (USA).
Dr Schmidt completed his PhD in sleep neurophysiology in Lyon, France under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Michel Jouvet – one of the “fathers” of sleep research. Dr Schmidt completed his residency in neurology at the Cleveland Clinic and his clinical training under the supervision of his father – Dr. Helmut Schmidt – a pioneer in the field of sleep medicine. Dr. Schmidt does research in Systems Biology, Evolutionary Biology and Neuroscience. His current work has focussed on the Energy Allocation Hypothesis of sleep, the role of the lateral hypothalamus in sleep and waking behaviors, and clinical sleep medicine. He proposed a new theory of sleep function (title: «the energy allocation hypothesis of sleep») and is active in a research program in Bern where he is a group leader. As the current Chairman of the World Sleep Society (previously WASM) Examination Committee, he is responsible for the development of an international exam in sleep medicine and its guidance on implementation. He is a member of ESRS Clinical Guidelines Working Group, since 2021 Scientific and Teaching Committee, EU NN, Member of Coordinating Panel Neuroscience/Translational Neurology, EAN.
He is an author and co-author of many scientific papers published in international and national peer-reviewed journals https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3299-1318.

Prof. Dr. Ramin Khatami, Chair Database Committee

Ramin Khatami is Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Bern and head of the Center of Sleep Medicine and Epileptology at Clinic Barmelweid, Switzerland. Ramin Khatami obtained his MD at Berlin Free University, and was trained in neurology at Dept. of Neurology University Erfurt and Freie Universität Berlin. He became head of the EEG laboratory at Epilepsy Department at Charité Berlin Humboldt University, Germany. In 2003 he received a postdoc research grant to work at the Neurology Department, University Hospital (Prof. Dr. C. Bassetti) and at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, section sleep and circadian rhythms (Prof. Dr. A. Borbèly).
In 2008, he obtained his habilitation at the University of Zurich. He is currently Associate Professor and head of Sleep Medicine, Epileptology and Sleep Research, at the Clinic Barmelweid running 12 fully equipped inpatients recording units and a huge outpatient ambulatory unit (>2000 patients/year).
Ramin Khatami heads a team of 32 members, including a research group. His research focus is on the diagnosis and pathophysiology of narcolepsy and other hypersomnias of central origin using electrophysiology and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) together with advanced data analysis methods including machine learning. He was one of the founding members of the European Narcolepsy Network (EU-NN) and responsible for launching the international EU-NN database on narcolepsy in 2010.