K. Ming Chan received an MB, ChB from Glasgow University in Scotland, did residency training at the University of Alberta and fellowship training at Tufts University in Boston. He is a professor in physical medicine and rehabilitation with adjunct appointments at the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute and Department of Surgery. His clinical practice is in neuromuscular disease. Dr. Chan has taken part in the development of regional multidisciplinary programs for patients in Central and Northern Alberta. His research interests are in peripheral nerve regeneration, myoelectric prosthetic control and neurodegenerative disorders. Publications include over 100 original research articles and book chapters. He has held peer review edge search funding from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, and the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Chapman is a Clinical Professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia. She completed her undergraduate degree in Occupational Therapy, and Neurology training at UBC followed by a Neuromuscular and Neurophysiology Fellowship at Harvard. Her interests include autoimmune neuropathies and complex nerve injuries.

Cynthia is a senior career-award researcher specializing in adult genetic neuromuscular disorders. She holds a professorial appointment at the School of Rehabilitation at the University of Sherbrooke. She is the scientific director of the Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les maladies neuromusculaires (GRIMN) and is a researcher at the Centre de recherche Charles-Le Moyne-Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean sur les innovations en santé.Cynthia trained as an occupational therapist at McGill University. She has a doctoral degree in experimental medicine from Laval University and pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in program evaluation at Montreal University. Her work aims at improving clinical care and speeding up trial readiness in the most prevalent neuromuscular diseases in Canada. Her main interest is to document the natural history of the disease through an interdisciplinary perspective to be able to document the progression of the disease and to identify significant predictor and explanatory factors related to participation in daily activities and social roles of patients such as work and autonomous living. Her other interest is to define the best outcome measures to assess potential therapeutic targets such as muscle strength, fatigue or cognitive functions. She also works on developing knowledge translation strategies related to rare diseases to ensure effective and just-in-time knowledge translation to the interdisciplinary team through different strategies including wiki, articles, clinical practice guidelines to improve clinical care for patients and their families. She is involved in several international projects in relation to myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD) and autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS).Within NMD4C, Cynthia is lead for knowledge translation.

Dr. Micheil Innes obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology (Human Genetics) at McGill, his MD degree at the University of Alberta and his Royal College training in Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba. He is a Professor of Medical Genetics and Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He is an Associate Editor of the Journals American Journal of Medical Genetics and Human Genetics and Genomics Advances , a member of the board of the European Society of Human Genetics and a past specialty committee chair of Medical Genetics and Genomics at the Royal College. His clinical practice is focused on rare disease, dysmorphology and pediatric and adult neurogenetics as well as having a busy outreach practice in Lethbridge. His academic program focuses on syndrome delineation, novel gene discovery and translation of novel technologies to the clinic. He is a leading expert on the genetic landscape of rare disease in the Hutterite and Mennonite populations of Western Canada. He has over 175 published manuscripts and has led, or contributed to, the identification of more than 50 novel disease genes.

Hans D. Katzberg, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FAAN is a neurologist at the Prosserman Center for Neuromuscular Diseases and clinical investigator at the Krembil Brain Institute and University Health Network in Toronto. He is an Associate Member of the Institute of Medical Sciences and Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine as well as Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Katzberg’s research interests include the assessment and treatment of neuropathies, muscle cramps and neuromuscular junction disorders including myasthenia gravis.

Dr. Khan graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master of Science in Nutrition. He completed his MD degree at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and Pediatric specialty training followed by Medical Genetics training at Rush Medical College in Chicago and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He has worked at the Hospital for Sick Children, University Health Network, McMaster Children’s Hospital, and Alberta Children’s Hospital. He was the first physician in the world to treat Fabry disease and Gaucher disease using Gene Therapy, the first in Canada to use Liver Cell Transplant and Gene Therapy to treat Urea Cycle Diseases and is experienced in using research drugs injected directly into the spine. Dr. Khan has extensive experience in diagnosing and treating mitochondrial diseases and published the largest clinical trial in Canada, called MITO-FIND, focusing on using DNA sequencing methods to diagnose mitochondrial disease. After having performed hundreds of muscle biopsies on children and adults, he worked with his team to develop a mitochondrial DNA sequencing method that can make a diagnosis from a cheek swab using Nanopore sequencing without the need to do a muscle biopsy in the majority of cases.

Dr. Omid Kiamanesh is a cardiologist specializing in cardiac neuromuscular disease and genetic cardiomyopathies at the University of Calgary. Dr. Kiamanesh trained in Advanced Heart Failure, Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Cardiac Transplantation followed by Advanced Echocardiography at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kiamanesh subsequently completed his Advanced Echocardiography fellowship at the University of Calgary. Dr. Kiamanesh is Medical Director of the Cardiac Neuromuscular and Genetic Cardiomyopathy Clinic at the Peter Lougheed Centre and Medical Director of the Cardiac Function Clinic at the Peter Lougheed Centre. Dr. Kiamanesh sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Society of Echocardiography.

Hanns is a neurologist and clinical academic specializing in genetic neuromuscular disorders and rare disease. He is Senior Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute. He also holds appointments as Professor of Neurology in the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology at The Ottawa Hospital. He is affiliated with the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and with the Ottawa Centre for Neuromuscular Disease.

Hanns trained as a neurologist in Munich, Germany and in Montreal, Canada. From 2007 to 2017, he held the chair of experimental myology at the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University in the UK. He continues to hold a scientific appointment at the Department of Neuropediatrics and Muscle Disorders of the Medical Center – University of Freiburg in Germany and as visiting scientist at the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Barcelona in Spain.

His research interests include molecular therapies of neuromuscular disorders; molecular pathogenesis of muscle and neuromuscular junction disorders; neurogenetics and translational research; data sharing and -omics in neuromuscular and rare diseases; and genomics and systems medicine. In addition to his scientific and clinical research interests, he is internationally active in rare disease science policy and research collaborations. He chaired the Interdisciplinary Scientific Committee of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) and the Executive Committee of the TREAT-NMD Alliance. He initiated and coordinated the highly successful “RD-Connect” international infrastructure for rare disease data and biosample sharing and analysis, is co-founder and former coordinator of the German muscular dystrophy network (MD-NET), and former scientific coordinator of EuroBioBank, a European (and Canadian) network of biobanks for rare disorders.

Hanns’s clinical activities focus on clinical research and care of patients with rare neuromuscular disorders, including myotonic dystrophy (DM1), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), muscular dystrophy and congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS). He has a strong commitment to working with patients and patient organizations in Canada, as he has with organizations in Europe for many years.

After completing medical school and residency at McMaster University Dr. McNeil has been in academic practice in Calgary since 2002. His practice is focused on peripheral nerve injury, emg/ncs and spasticity management. He is a Clinical Professor at the University of Calgary. He is the current chief examiner for the CSCN national EMG exam. He is past president and secretary/treasurer of the Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology-EMG section.

Dr. Michelle Mezei completed her undergraduate degree in pharmacy at Dalhousie University, Medicine degree at McGill University, and Neurology residency at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Fellowship training included 1) post-doctoral research in genetics at UBC 2) EMG at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and UBC, and 3) Neuromuscular at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University. She is a Clinical Professor in the Division of Neurology, UBC and serves as Academic Director of the Neuromuscular Diseases Unit, Vancouver General Hospital with roles in education as the Neuromuscular fellowship Director and supervision of Neuromuscular Clinical Trials. She works as a neurology consultant both in the NMDU and the Adult Metabolic Diseases Clinic with special interests in hereditary ATTR polyneuropathy, myasthenia gravis, and mitochondrial disorders.

Dr. Cam-Tu Émilie Nguyen is a pediatric neuromuscular specialist and EMG fellowship director at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal. She is also the medical director of the Neuromuscular clinic at Marie Enfant Rehabilitation Centre of CHU Sainte-Justine. Dr. Nguyen completed a fellowship in EMG and neuromuscular disorders at McGill University, the London Health Sciences Centre under Dr. Craig Campbell’s supervision, and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids).  Dr. Nguyen was named Early Career Clinical Researcher of the Year by the NMD4C in 2023. In 2024, she won the Collège des médecins du Québec’s Distinction award in the Relève (Rising) category and also received the Dr. David Green Award for Rising Clinician/Research from Muscular Dystrophy Canada.

Colleen completed medical school at Memorial University of Newfoundland and residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Dalhousie University. She specializes in spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation, and is Research Chief at the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation with faculty appointments at Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. She is a member of the Canadian ALS Clinical Trials and Research Network, The Rick Hansen Institute Research Network, and the Atlantic Mobility Action Project, with research focus on mobility in neurologic trauma and disease.

Dr. Homira Osman is the VP of Research & Public Policy at Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Her background is in clinical audiology, neuroscience research and knowledge translation. In her role, Dr. Osman has overall strategic and operational responsibility for all elements of research, knowledge translation, clinical relationships and advocacy work at MDC. Within NMD4C, Homira serves as the patient-engagement lead and contributes to all of the work packages. Dr. Homira Osman holds an Honors B.Sc. in Neuroscience and Population Health from the University of Toronto. During her undergraduate, she performed research investigating the challenges in diagnosis and prognostication of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder in neonates and infants and the benefit of appropriate intervention with hearing aids and cochlear implantation (CI), which instilled in her a love of patient-oriented research. Homira then moved to Seattle, where she pursued a clinical doctorate AuD at the University of Washington. She completed a clinical fellowship in pediatric audiology at Seattle Children’s Hospital Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery & Childhood Communication Centre. Homira then earned a PhD at the University of Washington. In her predoctoral work, she focused on understanding the interplay of peripheral and central hearing processes when children listen, comprehend, and communicate in real-world situations and how peripheral hearing loss may lead to auditory cognitive dysfunction. Dr. Osman completed a post-doctoral fellowship at The Hospital for Sick Children in the CI Lab and the Collaborative Program in Neuroscience (University of Toronto). During that time, she was awarded the Sick Kids Centre for Brain & Mental Health Integrative Research Fellowship Award for 2017. She worked on projects that defined adaptive and maladaptive types of plasticity arising from attention and vision in children with hearing loss, explored whether cytomegalovirus in early development affects cortical brain oscillations evoked by cochlear implants, and measured distortions in binaural cues created by bilateral hearing aids.

Dr. Kerri Schellenberg, MD, FRCPC, MMedEd is a Neuromuscular Neurologist and Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. She is the Medical Director of the ALS/MND clinic and the Medical Director of the Royal University Hospital EMG lab. She serves as Competency Committee Chair for the neurology program. Her research primarily focuses on motor neuron diseases (ALS,SBMA, and SMA), and includes publications in clinical aspects of neuromuscular disease. She has served as local PI for international treatment trials in ALS, local PI for the Canadian Neuromuscular Disease registry, contributed to Canadian ALS Best Practice Recommendations, and has ongoing grants and projects with local and national research partners to further understanding of neuromuscular disease. She completed her medical studies at the University of Saskatchewan, a Neurology residency at the University of Alberta, followed by a Neuromuscular fellowship at Duke University in North Carolina. Dr. Schellenberg was the recipient of the Betty Norman Research Fellowship Award from the ALS Society of Canada to pursue an ALS fellowship at the University of Alberta. She has a Masters of Medical Education from the University of Dundee.

Dr. Jodi Warman-Chardon is a Clinician-Scientist in the Department of Medicine at the Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute(OHRI) in Neurosciences and Clinical Epidemiology and Department of Genetics at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario/CHEO RI. She is a Tier 2 Clinical Research Chair in Diagnosis and Discovery Pipeline for Patients with Genetic Neuromuscular Disease at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Warman received her MD/Neurology residency at the University of Ottawa and MSc from Queen’s University. She completed research and clinical fellowships in neuromuscular disorders from McGill University and neurogenetics at the University of Ottawa and is certified by the Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiologists (EMG). She led the strategic development and is now Director of the Ottawa Hospital Neuromuscular Centre, a diagnostic clinical research centre for patients with NMD. She is also co-director of the uOttawa Centre for Neuromuscular Disease, which unites over 60 clinical and basic NMD researchers. Dr. Warman-Chardon's research program and clinical practice focuses on the diagnosis and the clinical characterization of patients with rare or novel inherited neuromuscular disease by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and next generation sequencing by genome and RNA sequencing.

Dr. Chris White is a neuromuscular neurologist based in Calgary since 1997. He studied medicine at McMaster University, completed a neurology residency at Queen’s University, and a neuromuscular fellowship at Western University. While he has served several non-clinical roles including Royal College Examiner and Head of the CSCN EMG examination board he is primarily a clinician with a passion for EMG and patient care.

Dr. Toshifumi (Toshi) Yokota, PhD, FCAHS is a Professor of Medical Genetics and the Friends of Garrett Cumming Research & Muscular Dystrophy Canada Endowed Research Chair in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of Alberta. A leading figure in the field of genetic disorders, particularly Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), Dr. Yokota is renowned for pioneering research on RNA-targeted therapies. This ground breaking work has led to the development of the FDA-approved drug Viltolarsen, representing a significant advancement in the treatment of DMD. With a career spanning over two decades, Dr. Yokota has secured over CAD$35 million in research funding and published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. Ranked among the top scholars in muscular dystrophy research globally, Dr. Yokota is also a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of OligomicsTx Inc., actively bridging the gap between academia and industry while advocating for diversity and inclusion within the scientific community. Dr. Yokota's research focuses on developing innovative therapies for genetic disorders using advanced techniques such as antisense oligonucleotides and genome editing, with the goal of improving the lives of patients worldwide.