Laurent Servais

I am Professor of Pediatric Neuromuscular Diseases at the Muscular Dystrophy United Kingdom (MDUK) Oxford Neuromuscular Centre and Invited Professor of Child Neurology at Liège University. I lead the Specialised Translational Research Oxford Neuromuscular Group (STRONG).

After graduating from Louvain Medical School, Brussels, Belgium in 1999, I completed a PhD in Neuroscience (cerebellar electrophysiology in alert living mice) from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, followed by residencies in child neurology at the Free University of Brussels and Robert Debré Hospital, Paris. In 2008, I took a position in neuromuscular disease and clinical research at the Institute of Myology in Paris, where my interest and expertise in neuromuscular diseases flourished. I was subsequently appointed Head of Clinical Trials and Database Services. Most recently, I served as Head of the Institute of Myology’s I-Motion (Institute Of Muscle-Oriented Translational Innovation), and Head of the Neuromuscular Centre in Liège, Belgium. I have joined MDUK Oxford Neuromuscular Center and the University of Oxford in September 2019.

I have been involved as principal investigator in numerous clinical trials to test treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), X-linked Myotubular Myopathy, Angelman syndrome and other neuromuscular conditions.

I am the leader of the newborn screening program for SMA in southern Belgium where we have also conducted a medico-economic analysis of newborn screening. This program has now grown into “Babydetect”, an innovative universal newborn screening program that aims to identifiy at birth any early onset treatable severe condition. My main research expertise covers the development of innovative outcome measures, including connected devices for real-life patients’ evaluation.  I have led the qualification of the first digital outcome by a regulatory agency, the SV95C in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy- and I hope to reach a similar achievement in Angelman