Philipp Sewerin is an associate professor and senior physician in the Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet University Hospital of the Ruhr University Bochum and a working group leader at the Hiller Research Unit for Rheumatology at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied medicine at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and Zürich, Switzerland and was awarded a PhD in 2013 for a thesis entitled “Effects of the prostaglandin analogue iloprost on on proliferation and differentiation of mesenchymal progenitor cells”. After postdocs in Harvard he came back to Duesseldorf where he got his Professorship (Ass.) and lectureship in rheumatology with the title ”The importance of magnetic resonance tomography for diagnosis, therapy monitoring and Prediction of inflammatory joint diseases”.

Dr Sewerin’s principal research interests are in the field of biomarkers and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other rheumatic diseases. He is a Principal and Investigator or Sub-Investigator for phase 2–4 clinical trials on good clinical practice and is the musculoskeletal MRI expert for the European Society of Radiology (ESR) and the ultrasound expert (particularly arthrosonography) at the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR).

Dr Sewerin has published widely on imaging in RA and is also a reviewer for numerous peerreviewed journals, including BMC, Arthritis & Rheumatology, and Arthritis Research & Therapy, as well as being a member of the editorial Board of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Prof. Xenofon Baraliakos is the Head of Rheumatology at the Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet Herne and Professor for Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

He studied Human Medicine at the universities of Magdeburg and Berlin, Germany and received his PhD degree in 2005 with the first study on the MRI outcomes of patients with ankylosing spondylitis before and after therapy with monoclonal antibodies against TNF-a.

Prof. Baraliakos received his official Board Degrees in orthopaedic surgery in 2007 and in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology in 2014. His research interests include clinical and academic research in the field of spondyloarthritides, with special emphasis on imaging outcomes and treatment of the disease.

Among others, Dr Baraliakos won the EWRR Award, in 2005, the EULAR Young Investigator Award, in 2006 and 2008, the German patient’s AS Society Award in 2010 and the 2014 Award for Excellence in Clinical Research from the European Society for Clinical Investigations.

Dr Baraliakos is the current President of ASAS (Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society) and member of the EULAR Council. He has served as Chair of the EULAR standing committee for musculoskeletal imaging. He holds membership of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) and the German Society of Rheumatology. He also acts as a reviewer and is an Associate Editor in a number of major rheumatological journals

Dr Steve Shaw, VP Head of Immunology Research UCB New Medicines, joined Celltech in 1993 as a research graduate in the immunology therapeutic area. Whilst a full-time employee there, he completed immunology PhD training at Imperial College, London, UK, focusing on the role of Th1 and Th2 in vivo, followed by post-PhD training and a sabbatical in the USA focusing on new target identification and validation. After the acquisition of Celltech by UCB, Dr Shaw led numerous antibody-based therapeutic projects within a pre-clinical immunology portfolio (Bimekizumab, Olokizumab, Rozanolixizumab) alongside his functional role as Head of Pre-Clinical Pharmacology.

In 2012, Dr Shaw became Patient Solution Leader for Bimekizumab, responsible for early clinical and commercial strategy. As Bimekizumab transitioned into ph2b in PsO, PsA and AS in October 2015, he took on a leadership role in understanding IL-17A and IL-17F biology and, importantly, how this might create value in additional patient (sub)populations.

In 2018, Dr Shaw became Head of Immunology Research and is responsible for the strategy and execution of pre-clinical immunology projects from target identification through to candidate selection

Associate professor Thomas Mandl is currently working as the Medical Solutions Lead Rheumatology at UCB in Sweden.

He studied Medicine at Lund University, Sweden and became board certified specialist in Rheumatology in 2007 and in Internal Medicine in 2009.

In 2008 he received his PhD degree, studying autonomic nervous dysfunction in primary Sjögren’s syndrome, and became in 2012 an Associate Professor in rheumatology. His research interests include clinical research in the field of Sjögren’s syndrome, with a special emphasis on extraglandular manifestations. As part of his research, he has been a member of the EULAR Sjögren’s Syndrome Task force, the International BIG-DATA-Sjögren’s Syndrome consortium, and the Scandinavian DISSECT consortium. He is author of 65 peer reviewed publications and 8 text-book chapters in rheumatology and has also acted as a reviewer for several rheumatological journals.