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Young Investigators​

The EUSTAR Young Investigators Group is a subgroup of EUSTAR members, first founded in 2007 and lead by young emerging experts in the field of Scleroderma, Dr. Ingo Turner and Dr. Christian Beyer. Now, ten years after its foundation, the EUSTAR Board has chosen Dr. Vincent Sobanski from the University of Lille and Dr. Cosimo Bruni from the University of Florence to be the new co-chairs, aiming at re-building the group and giving it a scientific and prospective role in the field of scleroderma research and communication.

The new EUSTAR Young Investigators Group has so far enrolled new members (all under forty) from EUSTAR centres since Dr. Sobanski and Dr. Bruni took over on May 2017. During their first official meeting at the EULAR Congress 2017 in Madrid, the aims of the Young Investigators Group were outlined and different subgroups were created in order to cover all spectrums of interest in the scleroderma field. First of all, education will be a strategic focus point for this group, aiming at identifying outstanding clinical, epidemiological and basic science news in the field of scleroderma during international congresses and disseminating to the whole scleroderma community, through the use of the Internet and social media. Another important objective of the group, will be to increase the visibility of EUSTAR and help gather more people devoted to scleroderma patients. Moreover, the Young Investigators Group will also have members focussing on previously unexplored areas to create possible future research projects in both basic, transitional and clinical science, and is dedicated to promoting young emerging researchers’ ideas. The Group will be instrumental in helping different EUSTAR centres communicate and share data through the MEDS-online registry, which represents the largest international database of scleroderma patients to date.

Given this new structure and aims of the Group, the EUSTAR Young Investigators Group is working to endorse education, communication and scientific output of the future systemic sclerosis experts.

The EUSTAR Young Investigators Group is welcoming new members continuously! Feel free to contact Dr Maria-Grazia Lazzaroni (counsellors@eustar.org) for further info.

Current chair:

  • Cosimo Bruni, Florence, Italy.

Current Group coordinators:

  • Julia Spierings, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Alain Lescoat, Rennes, France
  • Maria Grazia Lazzaroni, Brescia. Italy
  • Abdulla Watad, Tel-Hashomer, Israel
  • Alessandro Giollo, Verona, Italy
  • Alexandra Burlui, Iasi, Romania
  • Alfredo Guillen del Castillo, Barcelona, Spain
  • Ana Maria Gheorghiu, Bucharest, Romania
  • Audrey Benyamine, Marseille, France
  • Aurèlian Chepy, Lille, France
  • Ayse Kocak Sezgin, Kutahya, Turkey
  • Barbara Russo, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Benjamin Chaigne, Paris, France
  • Blaz Burja, Lublijana, Slovenia
  • Catarina Duarte, Almeda, Portugal
  • Catarina Tenazinha, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Claudia Cobilinski, Bucharest, Romania
  • Corrado Campochiaro, Milan, Italy
  • Devis Benfaremo, Ancona, Italy
  • Elhai Muriel, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Elisabetta Zanatta, Padova, Italy
  • Enrico De Lorenzis, Rome, Italy
  • Emanuela Praino, Bari, Italy
  • Emmanuel Ledoult, Lille, France
  • Eugenia Bertoldo, Verona, Italy
  • Giacomo de Luca, Milan. Italy
  • Greta Pellegrino, Roma, Italy
  • Håvard Fretheim, Oslo, Norway
  • Hilde Jenssen Bjorkekjaer, Oslo, Norway
  • Imon Barua, Oslo, Norway
  • Inês Cordeiro, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Iulia Szabo, Cluj, Romania
  • Jelena Colic, Belgrade, Serbia
  • Jennifer Ben Shimol, Holon, Israel
  • Jens Vikse, Oslo, Norway
  • Joana Caetano, Almada, Portugal
  • Kristina Clark, London, UK
  • Maithri Prasad Aspari, Aarhus, Denmark
  • Marco Di Battista, Pisa, Italy
  • Marin Petric. Slpit, Croatia
  • Michael Hughes, Manchester, UK
  • Michele Iudici, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Mickael Essouma, Yaoundé, Cameroun
  • Patricia Martins, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Rucsandra Dobrota, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Tania Louza Santiago, Coimbra, Portugal
  • Vasco Romão, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Veronika Jaeger, Muenster, Germany
  • Yossra Atef Suliman, Assiut, Egypt
  • Jeska de Vries-Bouwstra, Leiden-Nijmegen, Netherlands
  • John Pauling, Bath, UK
  • Marie-Elise Truchetet, Bordeaux, France
  • Alberto Floris, Cagliari, Italy
  • Anna-Maria Hoffmann-Vold, Oslo, Norway
  • Carina Mihai, Bucharest, Romania
  • Cristian Caimmi, Verona, Italy
  • Cristina Ponte, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Doreen Belz, Köln, Germany
  • Edoardo Rosato, Roma, Italy
  • Elisa Visali, Catania, Italy
  • Gemma Lepri, Firenze, Italy
  • Giovanna Cuomo, Naples, Italy
  • Matteo Piga, Cagliari, Italy
  • Mattia Congia, Cagliari, Italy
  • Pia Moinzadeh, Köln, Germany
  • Tunde Minier, Pecs, Ungary
  • Walter Alberto Sifuentes Giraldo, Madrid, Spain
Current chair:

Maria-Grazia Lazzaroni, Brescia, Italy

Current Group coordinators:

  • Julia Spierings, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Alain Lescoat, Rennes, France
  • Maria Grazia Lazzaroni, Brescia. Italy

Current members

  • Abdulla Watad, Tel-Hashomer, Israel
  • Alessandro Giollo, Verona, Italy
  • Alexandra Burlui, Iasi, Romania
  • Alfredo Guillen del Castillo, Barcelona, Spain
  • Ana Maria Gheorghiu, Bucharest, Romania
  • Audrey Benyamine, Marseille, France
  • Aurèlian Chepy, Lille, France
  • Ayse Kocak Sezgin, Kutahya, Turkey
  • Barbara Russo, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Benjamin Chaigne, Paris, France
  • Blaz Burja, Lublijana, Slovenia
  • Catarina Duarte, Almeda, Portugal
  • Catarina Tenazinha, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Claudia Cobilinski, Bucharest, Romania
  • Corrado Campochiaro, Milan, Italy
  • Devis Benfaremo, Ancona, Italy
  • Elhai Muriel, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Elisabetta Zanatta, Padova, Italy
  • Enrico De Lorenzis, Rome, Italy
  • Emanuela Praino, Bari, Italy
  • Emmanuel Ledoult, Lille, France
  • Eugenia Bertoldo, Verona, Italy
  • Giacomo de Luca, Milan. Italy
  • Greta Pellegrino, Roma, Italy
  • Håvard Fretheim, Oslo, Norway
  • Hilde Jenssen Bjorkekjaer, Oslo, Norway
  • Imon Barua, Oslo, Norway
  • Inês Cordeiro, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Iulia Szabo, Cluj, Romania
  • Jelena Colic, Belgrade, Serbia
  • Jennifer Ben Shimol, Holon, Israel
  • Jens Vikse, Oslo, Norway
  • Joana Caetano, Almada, Portugal
  • Kristina Clark, London, UK
  • Maithri Prasad Aspari, Aarhus, Denmark
  • Marco Di Battista, Pisa, Italy
  • Marin Petric. Slpit, Croatia
  • Michael Hughes, Manchester, UK
  • Michele Iudici, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Mickael Essouma, Yaoundé, Cameroun
  • Patricia Martins, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Rucsandra Dobrota, Zurich, Switzerland
  • Tania Louza Santiago, Coimbra, Portugal
  • Vasco Romão, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Veronika Jaeger, Muenster, Germany
  • Yossra Atef Suliman, Assiut, Egypt

Past Working group leaders

  • Jeska de Vries-Bouwstra, Leiden-Nijmegen, Netherlands
  • John Pauling, Bath, UK
  • Marie-Elise Truchetet, Bordeaux, France
  • Cosimo Bruni, Florence, Italy.

Past members

  • Alberto Floris, Cagliari, Italy
  • Anna-Maria Hoffmann-Vold, Oslo, Norway
  • Carina Mihai, Bucharest, Romania
  • Cristian Caimmi, Verona, Italy
  • Cristina Ponte, Lisbon, Portugal
  • Doreen Belz, Köln, Germany
  • Edoardo Rosato, Roma, Italy
  • Elisa Visali, Catania, Italy
  • Gemma Lepri, Firenze, Italy
  • Giovanna Cuomo, Naples, Italy
  • Matteo Piga, Cagliari, Italy
  • Mattia Congia, Cagliari, Italy
  • Pia Moinzadeh, Köln, Germany
  • Tunde Minier, Pecs, Ungary
  • Walter Alberto Sifuentes Giraldo, Madrid, Spain

© 2022 European Scleroderma Trials and Research Group (EUSTAR)