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Ceren Yarar-Fisher
Dr. Ceren Yarar-Fisher is Vice Chair of Research in the Dept. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Director of Clinical Research at the Belford Center for Spinal Cord Injury, and Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Ohio State University. Previously, she was an Associate Professor at the Dept. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the University of Alabama. Her translational research laboratory focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) in the acute and chronic stages, aiming at developing novel dietary and rehabilitation strategies to improve neuro-recovery, metabolism, and microbiome composition. As such, Dr. Yarar-Fisher’s lab is currently developing and testing therapeutic diets and electrical stimulation programs to evaluate new strategies to prevent neuronal death, promote recovery and function in acute SCI stages, improve body composition, gut microbiome composition and skeletal muscle, metabolic and bowel health in SCI chronic stages.
She has led and collaborated on many projects resulting in numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She has received several NIH and NIDILRR funding to support her research in SCI, nutrition, and microbiome. She was the program director and site-specific project principal investigator for the UAB SCI Model Systems from 2016-2022. Her contribution to high-quality, well-funded research has been recognized both institutionally and internationally. Junior Chamber International selected her as one of the 10 Outstanding Young Persons of Turkey for her work in Academic leadership and/or accomplishment. She served two years as Treasurer, Chair-Elect, and Chair in the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) in the SCI-Special Interest Group.
She has had the privilege of mentoring various students and trainees, including high school students, medical students, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residents, physical therapy students, doctoral students, and post-doctoral trainees. The students she has mentored are recognized for their research achievements via prestigious SCI research funding and academic scholarships.
Mónica A. Perez
Dr. Mónica A. Perez is the Scientific Chair of the Arms + Hands Lab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Northwestern University, and Research Scientist at the Edward Jr. Hines VA Hospital.
Prior to joining Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in 2019, Dr. Perez served as Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami’s Project to Cure Paralysis and Research Health Scientist with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Earlier in her career, she worked in the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
She has been studying neural mechanisms contributing to the control of voluntary movement in healthy humans and in people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) for over 15 years. Her research aims to understand how the brain and spinal cord contribute to the control of movement with the ultimate goal of using this mechanistic information to develop more effective rehabilitation therapies for people with spinal cord injuries. This theme is mainly investigated from a neurophysiological point of view, using a combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnetic resonance imaging, electrical stimulation, and behavioral techniques.
Under this framework, Dr. Perez has developed novel experimental methods for eliciting cortical and spinal cord plasticity in humans with SCI-induced paralysis. These mechanistic experiments can probe transmission in cortical and spinal neuronal circuits during different motor behaviours. Increased understanding of these circuits will support the development of targeted neurorehabilitation in patients with SCI, as well as in other patient populations.
Bento Amaral
Bento Amaral lives in Matosinhos, a seaside town near Porto (Portugal). He has a great passion for the sea, and after an accident on the beach in 1994 that left him tetraplegic, it was at the sea that he accomplished some of his dreams. Among other results, he was World disabled sailing Champion in 2005 and was placed 9th in the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008. His sporting activity gave him the opportunity to become acquainted with countries and people with very different cultures. These are the memories he treasures most dearly from that period when he practiced high competition sport.
After 14 years leading the Tasting Service of the Institute of Douro and Port Wines (IVDP), he has been Director of Technical Services and Certification of the same Institute, for 9 years, until 2022. In the same year, 2022, he founded the Humanwinety company, with 3 partners, which aims to empower and include less represented groups in society in the wine and hospitality business.
He is a professor at several higher education institutions where he teaches about wine tasting, world wines, Port wine. Since 1999 he is the chair of Sensory Analysis in post-graduate courses in oenology and wine marketing at the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia da Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Although he is a university professor, to keep his studies up to date, he is studying to apply to the Institute of Masters of Wine program in 2024. He graduated in Food Engineering and completed his traineeship at the Oenology Institute of Bordeaux. Bento has been awarded several distinctions including awards by the Portuguese President, the French Government and the prestigious American magazine Wine Enthusiast.
He is a member of the tasting panel for Revista de Vinhos, the largest Portuguese wine magazine and a wine consultant for companies and institutions. For more than two decades, Bento has been a jury member in dozens of editions of various national and international wine competitions. His activities also include courses and lectures on wine tasting. Besides, he regularly gives motivational lectures, having already made more than 500 presentations in the last 20 years. He is often invited to talk about the integration of disabled people into society, adapted sports and personal and spiritual experience.
He is married to Maria do Carmo Themudo Amaral. He is happy.