GERMANY
Professor Dr. Inga Zerr, M.D.
Head, National Reference Center for Human Prion Diseases and
Dementia Research Unit, Department of Neurology, Georgia August University, Göttingen
Inga Zerr is Head of the National Reference Center for Human Prion Diseases and Dementia Research Unit at Dept. of Neurology, Georgia August University, Göttingen, Germany. The Center is acting as a National Reference Laboratory for dementia and CJD diagnosis and as a WHO reference centre for CSF in CJD.
She has done substantial work on clinical diagnosis in CJD and biomarkers. She was Coordinator of multiple EC funded proposals on tests in CJD (CJDtest, CJDmarkers, prionscreen), where a large database which comprises clinical, biochemical, and MRI data on more than 1700 CJD cases and 2000 atypical dementia has been created and is regularly updated. Her research group has been specializing in analyzing biomarkers in biological fluids for over 25 years. Several therapeutic trials on dementia (including AD and CJD) are run.
She is coordinating a network on factors on disease progression in AD (KNDD) and is a partner at Center for Neurodegenerative Dementia in Göttingen (DZNE). In addition, she runs together with her co-chair Prof. Ellen Gelpi the International Network on health mutation carriers (PrionAtRisk, www.prionatrisk.de) and the International CJD Surveillance network.