AEA represented at UK-based Encephalitis Society Conference

January 23, 2018

Left to right – Encephalitis Society Executive Director, Ava Easton, AEA Executive Director, John Spencer, and Encephalitis Society Director of Operations, Phillippa Chapman.

Researchers and clinical professionals interested in the study of encephalitis descended on London on Monday, December 4, for the UK-based Encephalitis Society annual conference . More than 120 people from the UK, USA, Denmark the Netherlands and Indonesia joined for a day of presentations and networking on topics surrounding encephalitis. The conference ended with the UK premiere of Side Effects, a one-man play by actor Michael Milligan which looks at the day-to-day challenges facing doctors in the U.S.

William Burroughs, the author of Naked Lunch, was the inspiration behind the first keynote speech by Professor Andrew Lees, of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, who shared details about how the writer had influenced his approach to medicine and contributed to his medical career. The second keynote speech came from Professor Maarten Titulaer, co-director of the Academic Centre of Neuro inflammatory Disorders at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, who spoke about Anti-GABAbR encephalitis: status epilepticus and beyond.  Click here to view the  full list of speakers.

It was important that AEA was represented at the conference  by former executive director, John Spencer.  He stated, “The AEA and ES relationship is important as it allows researchers, clinicians, and other medical professionals to understand that our organizations work together towards the common goal of aiding those in need.”

A very special thank you to the Encephalitis Society for inviting the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance to the conference, and to  dinner with their scientific panel.  Also  our great appreciation to Andrew Pitt of the Encephalitis Society for authoring the majority of this post.