November 27, 2024
The members of the International Progressive MS Alliance join the MS community in mourning the loss of Professor Giancarlo Comi, an international leader in the field of neuroscience and neurological research.
Prof. Comi was instrumental in the creation of the Alliance, having served as the first Vice Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee. He also pioneered the Alliance’s Industry Forum, envisioning its role and purpose, and then serving as its first Co-Chair and enlisting the participation of many pharmaceutical companies that were driving MS research.
“Giancarlo was a cornerstone of the Alliance, helping to envision the Alliance before it ever existed. He recognized the unmet need of people living with progressive MS and was instrumental inbringing together the global leaders of the MS community to imagine what was needed and then help assemble the building blocks to form it,” said Dr. Robert Fox, Chair of the Alliance’s Scientific Steering Committee. “While he will be sorely missed by his patients and his colleagues, his significant mark on the MS world will live on, including within the Alliance.”
Prof. Comi’s contributions to the Alliance were just a small part of the influence he had within the MS field. He held numerous leadership positions within MS-related and neurology organizations. He was most recently an honorary professor of Neurology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, and chairman of the “Human Brains” scientific committee. Prof. Comi founded and led the Institute of Experimental Neurology at IRCCS San Raffaele from where he also served as President of
the European Charcot Foundation. Dr. Comi authored or co-authored more than 1,000 articles in peer-reviewed journals and was the lead investigator of many phase II and phase III MS clinical trials.
A compassionate and dedicated leader who accelerated the development of treatments for MS, Prof. Comi leaves a broad legacy that will forever impact the MS community.