About the Editors
Editor
Michael Fehlings, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Fehlings is the Vice Chair Research for the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and a Neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network. Dr. Fehlings is a Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, holds the Campeau / Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research at UHN, and is a Senior Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute. In the fall of 2008, Dr. Fehlings was appointed the inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program (which he held until June 2012) and is currently Co-Director of the University of Toronto Spine Program. Dr. Fehlings combines an active clinical practice in complex spinal surgery with a translationally oriented research program focused on discovering novel treatments to improve functional outcomes following both traumatic and non-traumatic forms of spinal cord injury (SCI). He has published over 1,100 peer-reviewed articles chiefly in the area of central nervous system injury and complex spinal surgery. In 2017, Dr. Fehlings led the initiative to create Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of degenerative cervical myelopathy and acute traumatic SCI. Dr. Fehlings has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Olivecrona Award and Ryman Prize, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Associate Editors
Anthony S Burns, MD, MSc, Brain & Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program & University Health Network - Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Canada
Anthony S. Burns graduated from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1994, and afterwards completed combined residency training in Internal Medicine and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Sinai Hospital of Baltimore - Johns Hopkins University program, followed by a SCI fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a past participant in the Rehabilitation Medicine Scientist Training Program, sponsored by the Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP) and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. From 2000 through 2007, he was Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia PA; Assistant Director of the Regional SCI Center of the Delaware Valley; and adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia PA. In 2007, Dr. Burns joined the University Health Network - Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Program, the largest program of its kind in Canada, and was the Medical Director from 2007 – 2012. Currently he is a Professor in the Division of Physiatry, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Affiliate Scientist, Neural Engineering and Therapeutics (NET) Team of the KITE (Knowledge Innovation Talent Everywhere) Research Institute. His clinical and research interests focus on the determination and measurement of outcomes following SCI, as well as the clinical management of spinal cord injuries and related secondary complications.
Sonja de Groot, PhD, De Hoogstraat Rehabilitation, Utrecht & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Sonja de Groot studied Human Movement Sciences and graduated in 1997. She obtained her PhD in 2003 from the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. From 2004 to 2024, she worked as a senior researcher with a primary focus on Spinal Cord Injury rehabilitation at Reade, Center for Rehabilitation and Rheumatology, in Amsterdam. Currently, Sonja de Groot works as a senior researcher in Spinal Cord Injury at De Hoogstraat Rehabilitation in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Additionally, she holds the position of Associate Professor at the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Dr. De Groot served as the coordinator of Dutch multi-center research programs titled: 'Restoration of mobility in SCI rehabilitation' and 'ALLRISC'. Over the past 20 years, she was also the secretary of the research committee of the Dutch Flemish Spinal Cord Society (DuFScoS). Dr. De Groot's current research interests encompass spinal cord injury rehabilitation, exercise physiology, wheelchair propulsion and configuration, and adapted sports. She has authored nearly 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Jörg Krebs, PhD, Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Switzerland
Jörg Krebs is the Head of the Clinical Trial Unit at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre in Nottwil, Switzerland. He has been involved in clinical research on spinal cord injury / disease topics, mainly neuro-urology and spine surgery, for over 10 years. Before moving into clinical research, he was active in experimental research with a focus on orthopedic and spine surgery for a decade. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Jörg Krebs studied veterinary medicine at the University Bern in Bern, Switzerland and graduated in 1995. He attained a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (Dr. med. vet.) from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University Bern in 2002. In 2007, he received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (summa cum laude) from the Medical Faculty of the University Bern. Furthermore, he holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Applied Statistics.
Narihito Nagoshi, MD, PhD, Keio University, Japan
Narihito Nagoshi graduated from Keio University School of Medicine in 2002 and began his orthopedic and spine surgeon career at Keio University. From 2014 to 2016, he studied at the University of Toronto under Dr. Michael Fehlings, where his translational research focused on degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) and spinal cord injury (SCI). He leveraged a large, multicentre, international database to advance his research on DCM and contributed as a committee member to the development of DCM clinical practice guidelines. He also completed preclinical cell therapy research, demonstrating the efficacy of gliogenic cell transplantation using human cells in a high-fidelity model of SCI. Since 2016, he has worked at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Keio University, mainly treating compressive myelopathy and spinal cord tumors. He also serves as a principal investigator focusing on SCI research, where he guides various projects and contributes to clinical studies using human-induced pluripotent stem cells. Additionally, he is a committee member for the guidelines on cervical spondylotic myelopathy and ossification of the spinal ligament group, which is endorsed by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association. Dr. Nagoshi has authored over 300 papers and textbook chapters, as well as received numerous awards from organizations including the Cervical Spine Research Society, the International Spinal Cord Society, and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association.
Rüdiger Rupp, PhD, Heidelberg University, Germany
Priv.-Doz. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Rupp received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering with focus on biomedical engineering and his Dr.-Ing. degree from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1994 and 2008, respectively. In 2018, he received his venia legendi in Experimental Neurology from Heidelberg University. After working at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Biocybernetics (Prof. G. Vossius) until 1996, since 1997 he is with the Spinal Cord Injury Center (Head: Prof. N. Weidner) of Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany, where he holds the position as the head of the section Experimental Neurorehabilitation. His main research interests are in the field of rehabilitation engineering for people living with spinal cord injury. This includes neuroprosthetics mainly of the upper extremity, man-machine interfaces, gait analysis, development and clinical validation of novel methods and devices for locomotion therapy and realization of software projects for standardized documentation of rehabilitation outcome. He is author of more than 320 journal, book chapter, textbook and conference publications and holds two patents. He has been awarded several times for his work and is a member of IEEE, IFESS, VDE, DMGP, DGOOC, NervClub, ISCoS and ASIA. Since 2017, he is chair of the ASIA International Standards Committee.
