ASSISTANCE AND RESEARCH OF NEUROMUSCULAR DISEASES
Dr. Rojas Garcia (Barcelona 1967) is a consultant neurologist of the Neuromuscular Diseases Unit in the Neurology Department at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.

He obtained his degree in Medicine in 1993 at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and completed his training in Neurology at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona in 1999. Since then he joined the group of Neuromuscular Diseases, led by Dr. Isabel Illa. He completed his Doctorate in Medicine on disinmune neuropathies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) in 2007.

Working at the Neuromuscular Diseases Unit he has accumulated expertise in diagnosis, clinical care and treatment of neuromuscular disorders and performing electrophysiological studies. He has focused his research in immuno-mediated neuromuscular disorders and motor neuron diseases (MND).

In 2010, Dr. Rojas Garcia obtained a national grant from the Spanish Ministry of Health (BAE 10/00047) to train on clinical and research aspects at the King’s MND Care and Research Centre, King’s College Hospital, London, with Prf. Ammar Al-Chalabi. From his stage in London, he has several publications (Rojas-Garcia et al, Amyotroph Lateral Scler 2012; Roche et al. Brain 2012). He is currently in charge of the MND Clinic settled up in 2004 at the Unit. This is a multidisciplinary clinical unit with experience in the diagnosis, care and treatment of patients with motor neuron disease and related disorders (Guell et al. 2013). Since 2004, the MND Clinic has become a reference centre for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and has coordinated several nationwide studies, including the first population-based epidemiological study in our country (Pradas et al. 2013; Garcia-Redondo et al. 2013; Dols-Icardo et al. 2014; Dols-Icardo et al. 2015; Aragones et al. 2016), and has participated in multicentric international studies (Xi et al. 2012; van Rheenen et al. 2016).

 As the coordinator of the MND Clinic, he combines the clinical care with the laboratory and translational research in the field of motor neuron diseases, with special interest in the biomarkers and phenotypic characterization of the disease. He is the principal researcher in two current projects in this field.

Academic training:

• Graduate in Medicine, MD (Autonomous University of Barcelona), 1993
• Residency in Neurology, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau de Barcelona, 1999.
• Doctor in Medicine, PhD (Autonomous University of Barcelona), 2007
• ‘Neuropatías disinmunes: utilidad de los anticuerpos antigangliósido en la definición de correlaciones clínico-inmunológicas y búsqueda de nuevas especificidades antigénicas.’
• Attending Neurologist, Neurology Department of Neurology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Autonomous University of Barcelona, since 2001
• Visiting Scholar, King’s College Motor Neuron Disease Care and Research Centre, Dec 2010, June 2011

Grants and Awards:
Principal researcher, grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigation Sanitaria (FIS)

• A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of lithium carbonate in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
• Financing Entity: Research grant from Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria FIS
• Project number: FIS EC08/00077; EudraCT: 2008-006224-61
• Spanish Neuromuscular Diseases Database Project
• Financing Entity: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria. Project number: FIS PI13/00772
• Clinical and research aspects in a reference centre of Motor Neuron Disease.
• Visiting Scholar, King’s College Hospital, Motor Neuron Disease Care and Research Centre, Dec 2010, June 2011
• Beca Ampliación Estudios (BAE 10/00047)
• Identification of diagnostic biomarkers for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• Financing Entity: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigacion Sanitaria.
• Project number: FIS PI15/01618

Other projects:

• Biomarker profile in different Motor Neuron Disease phenotypes
• Financing Entity: Fundación La Marató.de TV3
• Project number: 201437.10

Areas of investigation:

• Diagnosis and treatment of patients with neurodegerative and disinmune neuromuscular disorders
• Definition of clínico-immunological correlations and research of new antigenic especificites in immunomediated neuropathies
• Identification of diagnostic biomarkers for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
• Epidemiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis