1st International Conference on Clinical Brainmodulation and Technologies
9 - 11 September 2010, Nuremberg, Germany

Prof. Alim Louis Benabid

Professor Alim Louis Benabid is an internationally acknowledged leader in the field of deep brain stimulation. He obtained his medical degree in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Physics in 1978. He is married and has two children. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Preclinical Neuropharmacology of Floyd Bloom, at the Salk Institute La Jolla California from 1979 to 1980, Alim Louis Benabid has been appointed Professor at Grenoble University, in Neurosurgery and Experimental Medicine until 1983, then in Neurosurgery and Biophysics. From1988 to 2007, he was the Director of the research laboratory INSERM unit 318, entitled Preclinical Neurosciences, and from 1989 to 2007, Head of the Neurosurgery Department at the University Hospital of Grenoble, Professor of Biophysics at Joseph Fourier University. He is a Member of the Academy of Sciences, of the French Academy of Medicine, and of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Belgium.
His research has focused on mathematical modelling of intracranial pressure, MRI spectroscopy, molecular oncology, basal ganglia physiology, and robotics. Since 1987, he established the High Frequency Stimulation therapy for movement disorders, which he extended to several targets and pathologies. His current research, explores the biological effects of HFS, and its mechanisms of action.

Prof. Jean Delbeke

After obtaining an MD degree from the ‘Université catholique de Louvain’ in 1972, he specialised in neuropsychiatry at the same university. This was completed in 1975-1976 by one year residency in the clinical neurophysiology research lab (Prof. A. McComas) of the McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He started a career of full time clinical neuropsychiatrist, neurologist and neurophysiologist. A growing interest in engineering sciences ended in a master’s degree in biomedical engineering obtained in 1993. From then on, his occupations were divided between clinical work and research in the fields of volume conductor modelling as well as brain source localisation including some work at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A new research opportunity at the Neural Rehabilitation Laboratory of the ‘Université catholique de Louvain’ resulted in a PhD thesis on ‘The electrical stimulation of the human optic nerve’. Thereafter, he took on a part time job as ‘Chef de Clinique’ in neurophysiology at the St Luc Hospital in Brussels-Woluwe and participated actively in several European projects. Among these, NeuralPro pertaining to the study of methods and technologies for implantable motor prostheses, MIVIP et OPTIVIP involving the implantation of visual prostheses in humans. He was coordinator of SENS, a project aiming at the development of an active implantable electrode for neural recording.
At present, Jean Delbeke holds a position at the ‘Université catholique de Louvain’ as ‘Maître de conférences invité’ in the Engineering department and as a researcher at the Medical Faculty. He works also as Medical expert for a company (Neurotech SA ). He was the coordinator for IMANE (Implantable Multicontact Active Nerve Electrode), an European project, IST 026602 STREP , that started in December 2005, for a duration of 3 years. This project pertains to the development of innovative technologies expected to significantly improve neural implants. He is also involved in ADVENS (ADVanced Electrical Neural Stimulator), a project of the Walloon Region (2005 - 2008) coordinated by Neurotech S.A. and aiming at the development of an innovative vagus nerve stimulation system for human use and initially intended for the treatment of epileptic patients.

Sponsors & Partners:

The BMS2010 Organisation gratefully acknowledges the support of our 2010 conference sponsors and partners. Thank you:

BMS2010, September 09 - 11 2010, Nuremberg, Germany
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