Dr. Laurent Servais

Biography

Laurent Servais is a Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases and the Academic Director at the University of Oxford's Medical Sciences Division. He graduated from Louvain Medical School in Brussels, Belgium, in 1999 and completed his PhD in Neuroscience at the Free University of Brussels, focusing on cerebellar electrophysiology in alert living mice. Subsequently, he undertook residencies in child neurology at the Free University of Brussels and the Robert Debré Hospital in Paris. In 2008, he took a position at the Institute of Myology in Paris, where his interest in neuromuscular diseases flourished. He later became Head of Clinical Trials Database Services and also led the Institute of Myology’s I-Motion, which is focused on muscle-oriented translational innovation. In September 2019, he joined the MD UK Oxford Neuromuscular Centre at the University of Oxford. His research involves being the principal investigator in various clinical trials aimed at testing treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Additionally, he is a leader in newborn screening programs for SMA in southern Belgium, contributing to medico-economic analyses. His main research expertise includes the development of innovative outcome measures and the use of connected devices for real-life patient evaluation.

Research Interests