PALAVRA Filipe

 

Filipe Manuel Farto Palavra, M.D., is a neurologist working at the Centro de Desenvolvimento da Criança, which belongs to the Paediatric Department of Coimbra Hospital and University Centre. He obtained his medical graduation from the University of Coimbra and then entered the medical residency program at the General Hospital of Coimbra Hospital Centre, becoming a neurology specialist at the beginning of 2012. Even during the residency, his main clinical and research interests were myelin diseases, having published several articles on this topic. After concluding the residency, he went to Barcelona and integrated the team of neurology specialists working at the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia (Cemcat), at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, for two years and focusing his research interests in clinical trials for multiple sclerosis treatment, particularly involving monoclonal antibodies targeting inflammation pathways in the central nervous system and molecules promoting remyelination of multiple sclerosis lesions. He integrated the Board of the Group for the Study of Multiple Sclerosis of the Portuguese Society of Neurology and was also a Portuguese delegate in the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) Council.

He is currently the Vice-President and Secretary General of the Portuguese Society of Neurology, and he is also member of the National Board of the Portuguese Society of Neuropediatrics. He coordinates (at a national level) and also acts as a Principal Investigator in several clinical trials addressing the effect of new drugs in pediatric multiple sclerosis. He was involved, as a sub-investigator, in more than 30 clinical trials concerning the treatment of various neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and stroke. He represents, as a national delegate, the Portuguese Society of Neurology in the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) and he is also involved in two Scientific Groups belonging to the European Academy of Neurology (Multiple Sclerosis and Translational Research).

In parallel, he is a student of the Doctoral Programme in Health Sciences by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, developing a thesis about neuroinflammation and mechanisms promoting remyelination in an animal model of multiple sclerosis. He is also an invited assistant professor of Medical Therapeutics at the same Faculty of Medicine.