Meet the experts

Stefano Frara, MD, is Assistant Professor at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele and medical consultant in the “Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases Unit”, San Raffaele Hospital in Milan since 2017. He graduated with full marks at University of Turin in 2011 and then completed his post-graduate course under the mentorship of Prof. Giustina, in Brescia and afterwards in Milan. He published many articles on his clinical projects, focusing his research activities on pituitary diseases, in particular acromegaly and growth hormone deficiency, as well as skeletal endocrinology. In 2016, he has been awarded by SIOMMMS (Italian Society of Osteoporosis) during the XVI National Congress.

Dr Chiloiro is a clinical and translational endocrine researcher at the Endocrinology Department of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy. Her research covers a broad range of pituitary disease clinical topics including secreting and not secreting pituitary neoplasia, acromegaly, prolactinoma, hypophysitis, hypopituitarism and bone fragility. She is active in international collaborative studies on novel multiligands somatostatin analogs, new formulation of multiligands somatostatin analogs. Dr Chiloiro has authored on peer-reviewed original articles, editorials, commentaries, book chapters and abstracts, and has been a speaker at national and international congresses. She is highly involved in teaching medical students, residents and physician assistant students.

Cristina Olarescu is a Consultant Endocrinologist at Oslo University Hospital, and Senior Researcher at Institute for Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway. Previous to this she was a Postdoctoral fellow at the Section of Specialized Endocrinology, Oslo, University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, Norway, with a project entitled “Molecular Characterization of Non-Functioning Pituitary Adenomas”. She received a medical doctor degree from “Iuliu Haţieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2006 and became a specialist in endocrinology in 2013. The focus of her PhD thesis was “The impact of adipose tissue on insulin resistance in acromegaly” in 2015. Dr Olarescu’s main research interests include Pituitary lesions (non-functioning-, somatotroph-, and corticotroph-adenomas, hypophysitis), Acromegaly, Cushings’ disease, Hypopituitarism, White/brown/beige adipose tissue, obesity and insulin resistance. Dr Olarescu is a Board member at the European Neuroendocrine Association (ENEA) young research committee (EYRC). She has also participated in many international endocrinology congresses and served as a referee on several endocrinology journals (EJE, JCEM).

Dr Vila is Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. She graduated at the University of Tirana, Albania, and obtained her doctor’s degree at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany in 2004 with a translational thesis on the role of Sonic hedgehog signaling on corticotroph function and pituitary adenomas. She previously worked in the Division of Endocrinology, Hospital Saint-Antoine, Paris (2000-2001) and the Neuroendocrinology Group of the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (2002-2005), before joining the Division of Endocrinology at the Vienna General Hospital in 2006. Her primary clinical and research interests are pituitary diseases, and in particular neuroendocrine-metabolic interactions.

Dr Langlois is an Endocrinologist at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et services sociaux de l’Estrie – Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke. She is also Associate Professor at the Université de Sherbrooke Department of Medicine | Division of Endocrinology Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and investigator into the diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular complications axis at the Centre de recherche du CHUS Dr Langlois has completed her training in endocrinology and metabolism in Sherbrooke and started her career as a clinician and Assistant Professor in Hopital Charles Lemoyne in Longueuil, Quebec, in 2010. Six years later, she pursued a fellowship in neuro-endocrinology with Dr Maria Fleseriu at Oregon Health and Science University before returning to Sherbrooke in 2018. She pursues her clinical interest in pituitary diseases, and is also an associate editor for Frontiers Endocrinology, reviewer and has contributed to publications on various pituitary diseases.

Eva C. Coopmans received her medical degree in January of 2017 from the Medical Center of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. During her medical training, she studied Philosophy of Medicine, of which she obtained a master of arts degree cum laude in April 2016 from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her interest in Endocrinology, particularly in pituitary diseases, lead her to start a PhD project within the group of Prof van der Lely. Eva is now working as a fourth-year PhD student at the department Endocrinology of the Medical Center of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her thesis explores the therapeutic efficacy of octreotide and pasireotide in acromegaly patients via analysis of large datasets from international multicentre cohorts and a large-scale phase IV study. She considers the conception of a proof-of-concept study applying a ketogenic diet in acromegaly patients, a potential new treatment option, as her most outstanding personal achievements. Two of the things Eva is passionate about is conducting research and participate in learned societies. During her PhD candidate period, she was invited to become a board member of ESE Young Endocrinologists and Scientists (EYES) and recently elected to become co-chair of the EYES board (June of 2020) for a two-year term. During her four-year term in the EYES board, she was elected to become part of the organizing committee of the EYES Annual Meeting 2018 (Poznan, Poland), 2019 (Athens, Greece) and the EYES Symposium at the online e-ECE 2020. She is also an editorial board member of both the ESE and EYES newsletter and she represented EYES at several conferences (25th Postgraduate course, EndoBridge and ECE Summer School). Since 2018 she is a board member of the Early Career Special Interest Group (SIG) Steering Group of The Endocrine Society (US) and the Young Dutch Endocrine Society (JNVE).

Dan Niculescu is Consultant Endocrinologist and Head of Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Disorders at the C.I. Parhon National Institute of Endocrinology, Bucharest, Romania. He also is a lecturer in Endocrinology at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Since 2018, Dan has served as Secretary of the Romanian Society of Endocrinology. Dan has led and participated in research projects investigating insulin resistance, insulin secretion, and glucose intolerance in acromegaly. He has been first author on over 10 papers and co-author in many more papers spanning the field of Endocrinology. Dan was principal investigator in the GRADIENT and GRACE Phase 3 trials, investigating glucocorticoid receptor antagonism in the treatment of Hypercortisolism (GRADIENT) and Cushing Syndrome (GRACE). He also participated as a sub-investigator in a number of studies investigating growth hormone deficiency, obesity, acromegaly and osteoporosis.

Mark Gurnell is Professor of Clinical Endocrinology in Cambridge, where he is Clinical Lead for Endocrine Services. He is Head of Section (Specialty Medicine Research & Training) in the Department of Medicine, and SubDean in the School of Clinical Medicine.

His clinical and research interests are focussed on pituitary, adrenal and thyroid disorders, with particular interests in:
acromegaly
Cushing’s disease
TSH-secreting pituitary adenomas
secondary adrenal insufficiency
primary aldosteronism

He is head of the Cambridge Endocrine Molecular Imaging Group (CEMIG) and has led the development of novel PET tracers for imaging pituitary adenomas and adrenocortical tumours, with several now in use in routine clinical practice.

He is recognised as an expert in the management of patients with unusual thyroid function tests.

He currently serves on various expert committees/panels, including:
Council of the UK Society for Endocrinology (Treasurer)
Education Committee of the European Society of Endocrinology
US Endocrine Society’s ESAP panel
Royal College of Physicians (UK) Specialty Certificate Examinations Board (Endocrinology & Diabetes)

He holds a number of senior appointments in medical education and chairs the Board of the UK Medical Schools Council Assessment Alliance. He leads the team of UK Assessment experts developing the forthcoming UK Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) Applied Knowledge Test (AKT).