MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC
ADVISORY BOARD
The MSAB is co-chaired by two professionals deeply vested in the von Willebrand disease community:
Christopher Walsh, MD, PhD and Mrinal Gounder, MD.
Dr. Walsh is Associate Professor and Director of the Hemophilia Program in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. His work and voice are familiar to Von Willebrand Disease patients as well as the medical, research, and extended scientific communities serving their needs. He has sat on the Board of VWD Connect Foundation since its inception.
Dr. Gounder, recognized in 2018 for contributing to the top ten Advances of the Year in the field of oncology, is a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He has collaborated with patient advocacy groups in serving as Scientific Director of the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation. Gounder also serves as Chair of the Research Committee of the VWD Connect Foundation.
Our co-Chairs and the experts below form an esteemed and knowledgeable group of clinicians and researchers engaged in severe von Willebrand disease. Together they share a fundamental commitment to funneling knowledge and collaboration towards a cure. This committee will be expanded as the parameters of the initiative are further defined and as specific work demands.
According to Jeanette Cesta, the Foundation Executive Director, “we have been laying the groundwork for a cure since our inception. We know it is an incredibly complex process, and our patients and their voices are essential to it from the onset. They will be powerful advocates [for a cure] and are ready, willing and eager participants in studies and trials that will ultimately impact care and quality of life. Each and every member of the MSAB is deeply committed to hearing their stories.”
Click on the photos above and below to read more about these respected MSAB members.
