M/SAB Board Leadership
Gil I. Wolfe, MD, FAAN
Matthew N. Meriggioli, M.D.
Ted Burns, M.D. Henry Kaminski, M.D.
The MGFA Medical/Scientific Advisory Board (M/SAB) is comprised of medical professionals throughout the world who are interested in MG clinical care and research. This board promotes education and awareness in the medical and scientific community, and oversees creation and approval of all medical and educational materials that are distributed to patients and physicians.
The M/SAB also reviews and approves all research funded by MGFA.
Gil I. Wolfe, MD, is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, SUNY, where he holds the Irvin and Rosemary Smith Endowed Chair. Prior to January 2012, Dr. Wolfe was Professor of Neurology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. He currently serves as the Chair of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Medical/ Scientific Advisory Board. In September 2004, he was named to the Dr. Bob and Jean Smith Foundation Distinguished Chair in Neuromuscular Disease Research. Dr. Wolfe completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and attended medical school at UT Southwestern. He completed an internal medicine internship and trained as a neurology resident and neuromuscular/electromyography fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in neurology, neuromuscular medicine, and in clinical neurophysiology.
Dr. Wolfe's main research interests include idiopathic and immune-mediated peripheral neuropathies and myasthenia gravis. He has authored or co-authored over 75 papers and 15 chapters on neuromuscular disorders. His research has been sponsored by the National Institute of Health/NINDS, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, and Food and Drug Administration. He is actively involved in the training of younger physicians. He has received the Trephined Cranium Award for excellence in residency teaching on several occasions. He also serves on the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association, and Neuropathy Association, and has been elected to Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and to membership in the American Neurological Association
Dr. Meriggioli is the director of the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine, Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago. He also directs the Neuromuscular Medicine fellowship program at the same institution. He is board certified in Neurology with added qualifications in Neuromuscular Medicine and Clinical Neurophysiology. He completed his neurology residency at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, and completed a two-year neuromuscular fellowship at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He has been caring for patients with neuromuscular disease since 1996, and has a specific clinical and research interest in autoimmune myasthenia gravis (MG). He has been an investigator in a number of MG clinical trials, including investigations involving mycophenolate mofetil (CellCept), etanercept, and the investigation of the clinical efficacy of thymectomy in patients with MG. In addition to his clinical activities, he is involved in ongoing basic research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, exploring the immune regulation of experimental MG.
Among his publications - which include more than 50 scientific papers, abstracts and reviews – he is the coauthor of the textbook Neuromuscular Junction Disorders: Diagnosis and Treatment (Marcel Dekker, 2004). Dr. Meriggioli has been a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) since 1998, and is currently chair of the MGFA research and grants committee.
Dr. Ted M. Burns, recipient of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America 2011 Doctor of the Year Award, is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Virginia. In 2008, he was named a Harrison Distinguished Chair at the University of Virginia. He is the Medical Director of the Neurology EMG Laboratory, Director of the Neurology Residency Program and Director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship. He is Vice Chair for Education in the Neurology Department.
Dr. Burns completed medical school at the University of Kansas. He completed neurology residency and clinical neurophysiology fellowship at the University of Virginia. He completed a peripheral nerve disease fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After two years at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts, he returned to the University of Virginia. He has won teaching awards at the University of Virginia, including the Master Educator Award in 2006 and the Dean’s Teaching Award in 2005. He is an elected member of the Academy of Distinguished Educators at the University of Virginia. He has been selected as one of the Best Doctors in America annually from 2005 – 2010.
Dr. Burns’s main research interests include the construction and validation of outcome measures in myasthenia gravis. He and colleagues have developed two new MG-specific scales, the “MG-QOL15” and “MG Composite.” The MG-QOL15 is a user-friendly scale that measures the quality of life of patients with MG. The MG Composite measures the manifestations of MG. Much of this research was sponsored by the MGFA. Another area of academic interest for Dr. Burns is the use of podcasting to educate physicians, patients and families. He is creator and editor of the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine’s podcast, creator and editor of the Neurology journal’s weekly podcast and creator of the MGFA’s podcast series designed to educate patients and families about practical aspects of MG.
Henry Kaminski, M.D., is chairman of the Department of Neurology & Psychiatry at Saint Louis University. He is a nationally recognized expert in care of patients with myasthenia gravis and immediate past chair of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Medical Scientific Advisory Board. His research program, which has received continuous sponsorship by the National Institutes of Health since 1993, is centered on the understanding of the biology of extra-ocular muscle and the pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis. He is currently working to develop complement inhibitor-based treatment of myasthenia gravis and muscular dystrophy. He is a member of the Executive Committee of a NIH-sponsored trial to evaluate the role of thymectomy in management of patients with myasthenia gravis and principal investigator of ancillary study, Biomarkers in Myasthenia Gravis.