Joan Montaner, MD, PhD, completed his studies in Medicine and Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine in Cadiz, Spain. He underwent specialty training in Neurology at the Hospital General Universitario Vall d´Hebron in Barcelona, where he also completed a clinical fellowship in Cerebrovascular Diseases. Research training followed at Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, and at the Neuroprotection Research Laboratory of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.
Dr. Montaner created and coordinates the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the Vall d´Hebron Neurovascular Unit in Barcelona and since 2013 he is the director of the Stroke Programme at IBIS-HVR, Sevilla, where he also leads the Neurology Department at HUV Macarena. His activities in these laboratories and at the Stroke Unit are reflected in the publication of 322 peer-reviewed articles, 46 reviews, 18 book chapters and seven books (H index =54).
Dr. Montaner’s clinical and laboratory work focuses on the identification of biomarkers to be used as diagnostic and prognostic tools in ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke and also as companion diagnostics for several stroke therapies [http://stroke-biomarkers.com/]. Several experimental models of cerebral ischemia allows Montaner´s lab to do screening of potential compounds to be used as future stroke therapies.
Konstantinos Makris, PhD, EurClinChem, FADLM, graduated in Biology from Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1981. From 1985 to 2002 he worked in the blood transfusion service of the KAT General Hospital in Athens, Greece. In 1996, he gained his PhD in laboratory hematology and transfusion medicine from the Medical School of the University of Patras, Greece, with a research project on transfusion transmitted hepatitis. From 2002 he worked in the Clinical Biochemistry Department of KAT General Hospital in Athens, Greece. He has been a member of the European Registry of Clinical Biochemists since 2003, and fellow of the AACC Academy since 2015. His main research interests include biomarkers for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, renal and metabolic bone diseases. He has several publications in peer reviewed Journals in the fields of clinical biochemistry, endocrinology and transfusion medicine and presentations in International Congresses. He is also a reviewer for several peer reviewed journals including, JACC, CCLM Clinical Chemistry, Journal of Clinical Densitometry and Journal of Translational Medicine. Since January 2017 is a member of the Executive Committee of the Scientific Division of IFCC. His current research is focusing in the identification of biomarkers that can be used for early stroke diagnosis and differentiation.