Rareboost Seminar Announcement – Prof. Dr. Haluk Topaloğlu
We are excited to announce that Prof. Haluk Topaloğlu will give a seminar titled “Next generation therapies in neuromuscular diseases” at IBG on February 19, 2024.
Prof. Haluk Topaloğlu is one of the leading experts on pediatric neurology, particularly specializing on neuromuscular diseases. Prof. Topaloğlu currently works at Yeditepe University Medical School Department of Pediatrics.
We welcome your participation in Prof. Topaloğlu’s seminar on rare neuromuscular diseases and new therapeutic approaches.
Introducing Prof. Haluk Topaloğlu
Prof. Haluk Topaloğlu graduated from Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey in 1978 and completed his specialty in Pediatrics at the same Institute in 1982.
Between 1984 and 1985, he trained in Child Neurology at Alberta Children’s Hospital, University of Calgary, Canada. He completed a fellowship as the Christian Saunders memorial fellow at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School in London, UK in 1994-1995.
He is a British Council and ’Association Française contre les Myopathies (AFM)’ scholar. Dr. Topaloğlu has received several national and international awards including the Turkish Scientific and Research Council (TUBİTAK) award in 2003 and the Italian Gaetano Conte prize in 2015 for his lifetime contributions to clinical and basic research in muscle diseases. He is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA).
He served as the Secretary of the World Muscle Society (WMS) from 2001-2019 and worked on the Executive Boards of the International Child Neurology Society (ICNA), Infantile Seizure Society (ISS), Asian and Oceanian Child Neurology Association (AOCNA), Mediterranean Society of Myology (MSM) and is currently Co-chair of the ICNA Neurology through Art and Time (NTAT) Humanities Committee.
He has aided in the development of novel genetic therapies for Pediatric neuromuscular disorders such as SMA and DMD. Professor Topaloglu’s h-index is over 65. He is on the editorial boards of Neuropediatrics, Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases, Annals of Child Neurology Society and is currently Associate Editor of the Neuromuscular Disorders journal.
He currently a faculty member in the Dept. of Pediatrics and Child Neurology at Yeditepe University in Istanbul.
Seminar abstract
Molecular treatments of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are approaching. Reading through the stop codon was the first molecular approach. These were followed by efforts towards gene therapy and exon skipping. I have particular interest in exon skipping, an approach which has more than 15 years of background. There are several promising clinical trials based on earlier work. The overall aim is to be able to lead production of enough dystrophin protein to change the rate of progression and create a shift. Some of these molecules already have at least conditional approval by health authorities, however we still need new accumulating data.
