Dr. Roberta Rudà is Professor of Neurology at the University of Turin. She has been involved in Neuro-Oncology for up to 25 years. From 2022 is the Chair of the Division of Neuro-Oncology of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Turin. She is the Coordinator of the Multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Board, City of Health and Science Hospital/University of Turin. Professor Rudà has been member of the EANO Executive Board from 2016 to 2024. She has leaded two European Guidelines: the EANO Guideline on Ependymal tumors and the EANO-EURACAN-SNO Guideline on Rare glial, glioneuronal and neuronal tumors (both published in Neuro-Oncology). From 2017 to 2022 she held the position of  President of the Italian Association of Neuro-Oncology (AINO) and from 2022 is the Co-Chair of the Panel of Neuro-Oncology of EAN (European Academy of Neurology). She is Member of the RANO Groups on Seizures, Liquid biopsy, Leptomeingeal diseases, Resect and PET-RANO. Moreover, she is member of the Brain Tumor Group of EORTC, where is leading the Ependymoma subgroup within the EORTC 2013 Glio-Rare study. The major research areas include: primary brain  tumors with particular interest in lower grade gliomas, rare brain tumors (in particular ependymomas) and brain tumor-related epilepsy. Translational research, functional neuroimaging and neurological complications of cancers (in particular neoplastic meningitis) have been a focus of interest as well. Professor Rudà has been Principal Investigator in several national and international clinical trials. She has published more than 250 papers in highly impacted Journals, and several Chapters in international books.

Michael Platten is a Professor of Neurology and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital in Mannheim at Heidelberg University and Head of the Department of Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumor Immunology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg He is a Fellow of the European Association of Neurology, Deputy Chair of the German Neurooncology Working Group (NOA) and Co-Coordinator of teh German Cooperative Research Center UNITE Glioblastoma. Michael has received his MD from the University of Bonn, Germany his postdoctoral training at Stanford University and his board certificate in Neurology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. His main scientific focus includes glioma immunogenicity, immune suppression, heterogeneity and personalized treatment strategies. Michael and his team discovered novel pathways involved in immune regulation in gliomas and pioneered the development of therapeutic strategies for the immunotherapy of gliomas and other types of cancer. He is currently leading early multicenter trials testing these strategies. His contributions to brain tumor research have been recognized with the Paul Martini Prize, an ERC Advanced Grant and the German Cancer Award among others. Michael has published more than 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Nature Cancer, Nature Medicine, Science, Cancer Cell, PNAS, JCI, NEJM, Lancet Oncology and JCO and is listed as a Highly Cited Researcher.

Manuel Valiente is the Head of the Brain Metastasis Group at CNIO (2015-present). He investigates the biology of brain metastasis in order to challenge this unmet clinical need using his background in Neuroscience (PhD, Instituto de Neurociencias, 2005-2009) and Cancer Biology (Postdoc, MSKCC, 2010-2014).
Specifically, his laboratory studies novel brain metastasis mediators, characterizes the metastasis-associated microenvironment, designs better experimental models and explores novel methods to target brain metastasis, including the frequent impact on brain activity. All these aims consider the brain environment as a critical component to understand the biology of this progression of cancer. Dr. Valiente has co-founded the first National Network of Brain Metastasis (RENACER) in Spain, which is allowing his team to speed up the translation of laboratory findings to the clinic in collaboration with the 18 hospitals associated.
His contributions to brain metastasis research have been recognized with the Banco Sabadell Award, ASPIRE Award, ERC CoG, EMBO YIP, CLIP Award, Beug Foundation’s Prize for Metastasis Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb-MRA Young Investigator Award among others.
He is Board Member and Treasurer of EANO (2024-), Board Member of the Metastasis Research Society (MRS) (2022-2026). Other past responsibilities include Chair of the Scientific Committee EANO (2022-2024), ESMO faculty member (CNS Tumours faculty group, 2020-2024), EACR Panel of Reviewers (2022-2024).

Prof. Aleksi Šedo, MD, PhD, is Professor of Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry and currently serves as Head of the Institute of Biochemistry and Experimental Oncology at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague.

His research focuses on the biology of the tumor microenvironment in primary and secondary brain tumors, with particular emphasis on low-grade gliomas, glioblastoma and brain metastases. His laboratory studies the functional role of stromal mesenchymal and perivascular cells in tumor progression, including their contribution to extracellular matrix remodeling, tumor neovascularization, local immunosuppression, and cancer cell invasion. A major aim of this work is to identify biologically relevant interactions between tumor cells and their microenvironment that may provide new opportunities for translational diagnostics and therapy.

In addition to his academic and research activities, Prof. Šedo serves as Director of the National Institute for Cancer Research and as President of the Czech Society of Neuro-Oncology.

During his scientific career, Prof. Šedo spent several years as a visiting professor at the Institute of Mutagenesis and Differentiation in Italy, as a visiting scientist at Institut Curie in Paris, and as a senior scientist in the R&D department of Procter & Gamble in Germany. His professional activities combine experimental oncology, translational research, academic leadership, and the development of national and international collaborations in cancer research and neuro-oncology.

Norbert Galldiks, MD, is a full Professor of Neurology and Neurooncology at the Medical Faculty of the University Cologne in Germany. Furthermore, he is Leader of the Research Group “Translational Imaging in Neuro-Oncology” at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine at the Research Center in Juelich, Germany. He is also a Board of Directors member of the Brain Tumor Center at the University Hospital Cologne, Head of the Outpatient Clinic for patients with brain tumors in the Dept. of Neurology at the University Hospital Cologne, and Chair of the PET Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Working Group (PET/RANO). He developed multiple investigator-initiated neuroimaging studies in patients with brain tumors and also served in numerous national and international phase-2 and -3 clinical trials for brain tumor therapy. Additionally, he authored in collaboration with international major societies in the field such as RANO, EANO, EANM, ESMO, and SNMMI guidelines for PET imaging and the clinical management of patients with brain tumors. Currently, he is Associate Editor for the journals Neuro-Oncology Advances and Neuro-Oncology Practice and Editorial Board Member of Neuro-Oncology. Professor Galldiks has multiple publications predominantly focusing on the evaluation of gliomas and brain metastasis using PET, advanced MRI, hybrid PET/MRI, AI, and Radiomics techniques.

Stephen Price is Professor of Neurosurgical Oncology at the University of Cambridge and Co-Director of the Cambridge CRUK-Minderoo Brain Cancer Virtual Institute. His research interest involves the application of advanced MRI and PET imaging to understand the invasive margin of gliomas as well as the impact this invasion has on normal brain function. He has a major developing interest in targeted rehabilitation of cognitive deficits He is the chief investigator for the multi-centre PRaM-GBM study that is qualifying and imaging biomarker to predict sites of tumour progression, the SIND study that explores impact of tumours and surgery on normal brain functioning and the SCARF-BT study – a study looking at the feasibility of a rehabilitation strategy for emotional recognition in brain tumour patients. His current Precision Surgery study is an early surgical study of developing individualised resection targets to direct surgery for glioblastomas.

Prof. Price is the former chair of the Imaging and Technology group of the National Cancer Research Institute’s Brain Tumour study group and is the current neuro-oncology theme lead for the NIHR Brain Injury Medtech Co-operative. He is the lead for the British Neurosurgical Research Group. He has a strong interest in teaching and training as the Clinical Director of Studies for Queens’ College Cambridge, former Training Programme Director for the East of England Neurosurgical Training Programme and is a current member of the UKs Special Advisory Committee on Neurosurgical Training where he takes a lead on clinical academic training.

Karin Piil, PhD, RN, is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Oncology, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, and Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is also a Visiting Professor at Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

Within EANO, Karin serves on the Executive Board and is the former Chair of the Nurses and Allied Healthcare Professionals Committee (NAC) and the Disparity and Inclusion Committee. Through these roles, she has contributed to strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration, inclusivity, professional development, and capacity building within the neuro-oncology community.

Her research focuses on improving the lives of patients with primary brain tumours and their families. Her work examines health-related quality of life, symptom management, coping strategies, rehabilitation, and advance care planning across the entire disease trajectory, from diagnosis and treatment to survivorship, end-of-life care, and bereavement. She has a particular interest in developing and evaluating person- and family-centered interventions that support patients and families in living with the challenges of brain tumours.

Through international collaborative research, Karin aims to advance person- and family-centered neuro-oncology care, build research capacity, and strengthen the integration of research evidence into clinical practice to improve outcomes for patients and their loved ones.

Mihaela Lorger is a Professor of Tumour Immunology and Head of the Brain Metastasis Research Group at the University of Leeds in the UK. Her research focuses on the biology of brain metastases, mechanisms underpinning anti-tumor immune responses, resistance to immunotherapy, and development of hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy for brain metastases. The ongoing research integrates studies in pre-clinical models, analysis of human tissue and molecular profiling, and is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) UK, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) UK, and UK charities. Dr. Lorger is past chair of the EANO Educational Committee.

Felix Sahm is neuropathologist at the Dept. of Neuropathology at the University Hospital Heidelberg and head of the molecular diagnostics branch of the department.

His research focuses on the identification of novel clinically relevant subgroups of brain tumors beyond the variants that can be distinguished by histology. Subsequently, he implements novel molecular markers accurately stratifying for these subgroups into diagnostic routine.

Dr. Sahm performs central and reference molecular neuropathology for various studies on pediatric and adult brain tumors (e.g. MNP2.0, PTT2.0, N2M2).

He has contributed to >100 publications in peer reviewed journals. These include his study elucidating that gliomas histologically presenting as oligoastrocytoma can molecularly be assigned to either astrocytoma or oligodendroglioma, the implementation of the first brain tumor-specific hybrid-capture next-generation-sequencing panel, or the study establishing the prognostic role of TERT promoter mutations in meningioma.

Currently, he investigates the molecular landscape of meningioma in order to integrate molecular markers into diagnostic work-up and treatment decisions, starting with the recently implemented DNA methylation-based grading approach to meningioma.

Dr. Razis studied medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. She completed a three year medical residency at Beth Israel Medical Center, a six year Honors Program and a three year Oncology Fellowship at New York Medical College/Westchester County Medical Center. She then worked as an Instructor of Medicine in New York Medical College. Upon returning to Greece, she started working as an attending at Hygeia hospital while completing a Ph.D. in Medicine. She is currently appointed as Director in the 3rd Oncology department in Athens, Greece at “Hygeia” Hospital. In the Spring of 2016, Dr. Razis led her practice to the first ever Quality certification by ASCO for an international practice.

Dr. Razis has a strong interest in education, giving several lectures a year and teaching doctors who are in the process of specialization. She has worked voluntarily in the Sudan, in Sri Lanka, in the Honduras, in Zimbabwe, in Rwanda and in Kefalonia, Greece. Her specific interests include Breast Cancer and Neuro-oncology. She actively participates in a number of Medical Associations and cooperative groups, including ASCO, ESMO, EANO, SNO, HeCOG, National Cancer Institute, the Breast International Group, the EORTC Breast Cancer Group, the EORTC Brain Tumor Group, where she is appointed to the Quality assurance subcommittee, and Brain Tumor Funders’ Collaborative Consortium. She has published over 100 papers, has presented several abstracts-posters in international congresses and meetings and has worked on 22 chapters and courses.

Anna Sophie Berghoff is a medical oncologist at the Medical University of Vienna. Here, she head the CNS tumor program including the subversion of International clinical trials as well as translational research projects. Her particular research focus are cancer- immune system interaction in the context of primary an secondary brain tumors.

Enrico Franceschi is the Chairman of Nervous System Medical Oncology at IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche – AUSL di Bologna,

He is the chair of EANO clinical guidelines committee, Coordinator of the ESMO Faculty for CNS Tumors, , member of the EORTC Brain Tumor Group.

He is Coordinator of ERN EURACAN WP10 (International and Multilevel Relationships), and member of EURACAN Steering Committee, as well as Co-coordinator of the Nervous System Tumors EURACAN Domain 10,

He is expert participant in the Health Leadership Mission for Rare Diseases (HLM4RARE).

He is involved in both EUnetCCC and JANE-2 European Joint Actions  in several WPs.

In EUnetCCC he is also Member of the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB)

On a national level he is coordinator of the national AIOM CNS guidelines approved by the National Institute of Health, and Deputy Coordinator of the RIN network Neuro-oncology Subgroup.

He is Principal Investigator in international clinical trials, with over 200 peer-reviewed articles

Florien Boele, BSc, MSc, PhD, FHEA

Leeds Institute for Medical Research and Leeds Institute for Health Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

Stichting Epilepsie Instellingen Nederland (SEIN), Heemstede, the Netherlands

Dr Florien Boele is an Associate Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of Leeds. Dr Boele has a background in neuropsychology and obtained her PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam (2015). She leads a research group which focuses on health-related quality of life and (access to) support in (neuro-)oncology patients and family caregivers. Dr Boele is involved in several active clinical trials as patient-centred outcomes expert. She has published >90 peer reviewed publications and obtained >£11M in research funding. Apart from her academic role, she leads evidence-based service improvement projects at SEIN (tertiary referral centre for epilepsy and sleep disorders), where she also works as a psychologist.

Dr Boele is an active member of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group and the European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO), where she serves on several committees. She chairs the Response Assessment in Neuro Oncology (RANO) – Cares working group, and the International Neuro-oncology Caregiver Consortium (INCC). Dr Boele is Associate Editor for Neuro-Oncology.

Helen has experienced cancer from a caregiver’s perspective and also as a cancer patient. This 360-degree view means that she is well placed to understand the perspectives of patients who are living with a brain tumour, their caregivers and health care professionals.

Her roles in brainstrust, a national brain cancer charity which she founded, and as a consumer representative with various bodies are as a disseminator of information and the provision of a network and community, so that she can provide advice on achieving effective consumer involvement and creating a voice.  Helen’s key drivers are the patients, their caregivers and healthcare professionals, with whom she interacts daily. Her ethos of 'none of us is as smart as all of us' is a core value for her.

Elemental to Helen’s work is high performance coaching. This sets brainstrust apart. When we are no longer to able to change a situation we are challenged to change ourselves. The coaching relationship enables people to face these challenges, so that they learn how to develop resilience and utilise resources to their full potential.

Helen stays up to date with relevant research, ensuring her reading is not brain centric. The skills she developed whilst studying for her PhD means that she is tenacious in spirit, but with a listening ear.

Matthias Preusser is Professor of Medical Oncology and Head of the Clinical Division of Oncology at the Medical University of Vienna. He served as EANO President 2020-22 and Congress President of the EANO Meeting 2022 in Vienna, Austria. Matthias Preusser leads international clinical trials on gliomas, meningiomas and brain metastases. Since 01/2024, he represents EANO as Executive Editor of Neuro-Oncology.

Matthijs van der Meulen, MD/ PhD is a neurologist/ neuro-oncologist at Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, the Netherlands. After completing the neurology residency in Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, he completed a clinical  in adult neuro-oncology in Princess Margaret Cancer Center, in Toronto, ON, Canada (supervised by prof. Waren Mason).

After obtaining his PhD in primary central nervous system lymphoma, he continued to work on PCNSL, with an interest in predictive and prognostic radiological features. In addition, he focusses on neurological side-effects of CAR T-cell therapy, looking for objective biomarkers identifying neurological deterioration and quantify neuropsychological functioning after CAR T-cell therapy. He is a member of the Editorial Board for Neuro-Oncology Practice, and of the Quality-of-Life committee of the brain Tumour Group of the EORTC. Dr. Van der Meulen is chair of the Educational Committee 2026-2028. 

Maximilian Mair is a clinician-scientist at the Division of Oncology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. His research activities focus on clinical and translational neuro-oncology, with particular interests in precision oncology, molecular imaging and theranostics in gliomas and meningiomas. He serves as Deputy Head of the Austrian Clinical Research Group ATTRACT, a nationwide precision oncology initiative for glioblastoma, and is actively involved in several neuro-oncology networks including EANO, the EORTC Brain Tumor Group, and RANO. He serves as chair of the EANO Youngsters Committee in 2026-2028.