Professor Richard Knight FRCP(E)
National CJD Surveillance Unit, Edinburgh
Chair of the CJD Support Network Committee
Professor Richard Knight received his BA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University in 1972, his medical degree in 1977, his postgraduate medical qualification in 1980 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1993.
Professor Knight is presently serving as Director of the UK National CJD Surveillance Unit and has a Personal Chair in Clinical Neurology at the University of Edinburgh with an Honorary Consultant Clinical Neurology post in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Professor Knight spends approximately 50% of his time divided between CJD Surveillance and research and 50% devoted to clinical services and teaching. He has authored and co-authored many CJD related papers related to sporadic, variant, genetic and iatrogenic forms of the illness.
Professor Knight also has a long involvement with CJD lay and charity organisations, currently being Chair of the UK National CJD Support Network Management Committee and an invited Friend and Advisory to the CJD International Support Alliance.
Professor Simon Mead
Consultant Neurologist and Clinical Lead of the NHS National Prion Clinic
Professor of Neurology and Deputy Director of the MRC Prion Unit at UCL
UK CJD Support Network Committee Member
After medical training at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and a PhD in the genetics of prion diseases at Imperial College London, Simon Mead is a Professor of Neurology and Clinical Lead of the UK National Prion Clinic based at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
Also working at the UK Medical Research Council’s Prion Unit, his research interests include clinical studies of CJD or prion disease patients, the discovery of genetic factors that cause or influence prion disease and the development of treatments for prion disease based on antibodies.
Dr Nick Cutfield
Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago
Consultant Neurologist and Clinical Lead at Dunedin
Director, National CJD Registry, New Zealand
Nick has worked as a consultant neurologist since 2009. He is the clinical director of neurology at Dunedin Hospital, and a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Otago, where he directs the NZ Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Registry and the Dunedin Dementia Prevention Research Clinic.
He diagnoses and manages all types of adult neurological diseases and problems.
Some of these conditions are blackouts and seizures, multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory conditions, tremors, Parkinson’s disease, migraine and headaches.
He did research and training in vestibular (balance) and eye movement disorders in London and is currently involved in research developing early tests for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Dr Christiane Stehmann
Coordinator, Australian National CJD Registry
Christiane is the coordinator of the Australian National CJD Registry, responsible for the day to day operations of the group and its interactions with clinicians and patient families.
Christiane graduated from Stuttgart-Hohenheim University, Germany (with honours in biology) and was awarded a PhD from Wagnening University, the Netherlands. Christiane then completed a post doc at University of Melbourne, worked as a Research Scientist at HortResearch in Auckland and then moved into a commercial role with Perkin Elmer managing the high throughput screening and proteomics technologies businesses. A four-year stint with Biotech start up Healthlinx as proteomics laboratory manager further rounded out her business and people skills which she now puts to effective use in her role at the ANCJDR, her most fulfilling role to date.
Kelly Sullivan
Genetic Counsellor, Genetic Health Service NZ
Kelly Sullivan is an HGSA certified genetic counsellor who has worked for the Genetic Health Service NZ, Auckland hub since 2014. As part of her role, she has supported multiple families through the process of predictive and diagnostic testing for prion diseases and other rare hereditary neurological disease.
Anup Chand
Clinical Lead for Collections, NZ Blood Service
Born in Fiji, moved to NZ in 1998.
Joined NZBS in 2000 as First Medical Officer. Based in Auckland.