Alexander Klistorner

I finished my ophthalmology training in Russia in 1985, and set up a large independent diagnostic centre. Since then I have specialized in clinical electrophysiology of vision. In 1992 I migrated to Australia. I completed my PhD in UNSW (Sydney) in 1996. During last several years my research has expanded into area of neurological diseases, particularly multiple sclerosis (MS). Thus, in 2008 I performed world’s first study of structure/function interaction in visual system of optic neuritis patients. I also initiated and, in collaboration with the REEH (Melbourne), have conducted studies of optic nerve remyelination, which are now considered a benchmark for trials of MS therapies (2009). I have became an expert in structural techniques such as Optical Coherence Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the visual system, which is reflected in frequent requests to review papers submitted to ophthalmic and neurology journals. My collaboration with Macquarie University produced one of the world first algorithms for retinal segmentation of OCT images (2009) and helped to develop an animal model of optic nerve demyelination (2010), while collaboration with Hebrew University (Israel) and BMRI (Sydney) resulted in development of a special methodology to analyse the posterior part of the visual pathway in MS patients (2011).

My work resulted in several invitations for review papers and more then 70 publications in leading ophthalmological and neurological journals. Results of my studies were published in Annals of Neurology, NeuroImage, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Multiple Sclerosis and others.I have been involved in five international clinical trials both as an investigator and a study designer. I have been CIA on 3 NHMRC grants, I have also been CIA on grants from the American MS Society, the Australian MS Society, ORIA and others with total amount of funding exceeding $4.5m ($3m in last 5 years). I was awarded a Sydney Medical Foundation Fellowship continuously from 1999 to 2013. My most recent achievement is securing (as CIA) a $1.2m grant from National MS Society (USA) and matching grant from Sydney University Medical Foundation ($1.2 m) to conduct longitudinal study of visual system in MS. This work, which commenced in 2014, involves collaborating with leading MS research centers in Italy, Spain, Israel, Germany and Canada.

I have initiated close collaboration between ophthalmology and neurology Departments and Brain and Mind Center, which led to the development of my current research program. Furthermore, as part of the research program I established close collaboration with several leading international institutions such as:

• University Hospital,  Düsseldorf (Germany),
• Clinical Neuroimmunology Group NeuroCure Clinical Research Center Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany),
• Institute of Computer Vision and Robotics, University of Girona (Spain),
• Tel Aviv university (Israel),
• San Raffaele hospital, Milan (Italy),
• Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Surgery, University of Calgary (Canada) 
• Hadassah medical center (Israel).