Contract on the Provision of Financial Resources from International Visegrad Fund
Small Grant No. 11540180

Visegrad countries contribution to European Rare Neurological Disorders Network

POLISH HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE ASSOCIATION

INTERNATIONAL VISEGRAD FUND

Education and professional training

  • 1976-1983 study of medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
  • 1987-1991 researcher DFG-group "psychobiology of perception", LMU Munich
  • 1992-1999 assistant professor, Department of Neurology, LMU Munich (Prof. Brandt)
  • 1999-2001 visiting scientist, associate investigator: Cognitive Neuroscience Section, NINDS, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, USA (Dr. J. Grafman)
  • 2002- associate professor, Department of Neurology, LMU Munich (Prof. Dieterich)

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    Adrian Danek holds a permanent position as Professor of Cognitive Neurology at the University of Munich. In addition to routine clinical work as an attending physician and to teaching obligations, he runs a dementia outpatient clinic with an emphasis on genetic dementias and non-Alzheimer types, in particular the progressive aphasias (as a member of the German frontotemporal lobar degeneration network).


    Adrian Danek is also an expert on neuroacanthocytosis (NA) and had initiated and organized the first ever international conference on the topic in 2002 (see Danek A, ed. Neuroacanthocytosis Syndromes. Dordrecht: Springer; 2004. 310 pages) that has been followed-up by several further meetings (see e.g. Walker RH, Saiki S, Danek A, eds. Neuroacanthocytosis Syndromes II. Berlin: Springer; 2008. 321 pages). An 8th meeting takes place May 2016, in Ann Arbor (https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/chacsymposuim).


    From 2010 to 2013 Adrian Danek has coordinated the ERA-net network EMINA (European multidisciplinary initiative on neuroacanthocytosis; www.emina.med.uni-muenchen.de) and has set up a web-based patient data base with the European Huntington´s Disease network to achieve trial readiness for NA patients in spite of their world-wide dispersal (www.euro-hd.net/html/na/registry). EMINA-2 (www.emina2.eu), led by Andreas Hermann, Dresden, is a continuation of EMINA.


    Together with the Munich University Center for Neuropathology and the Advocacy for Neuroacanthocytosis Patients (www.naadvocacy.org) he offers a Western blot for chorein determination in blood samples. This free diagnostic tool so far has been used for >600 patients seen by physicians from all inhabited continents and has confirmed a diagnosis of chorea-acanthocytosis (ChAc) in about 30% of the cases (see also newsletter.naadvocacy.org, April 2016 issue).


    Within the international neuroacanthocytosis collaboration (“EMINA and friends”) he helps distribute biosamples such as blood among basic scientists and has collected brain tissue from 12 international ChAc patients, preserved by the Munich University Center for Neuropathology for further analysis.


    Selected publications on neuroacanthocytosis:
    · Bader B, Liu J, Kretzschmar HA, Danek A (2011) A clinical DNA database of rare choreic and dystonic movement disorders. Movement
    Disorders 26:S304.
    · Danek A (2014) Approaching Our Goals Over Two Decades: A Summary of the 7th Neuroacanthocytosis Symposium. Tremor and Other
    Hyperkinetic Movements (http://www.tremorjournal.org/index.php/tremor/article/view/289/990)
    · Danek A et al. Autosomal recessive transmission of chorea-acanthocytosis confirmed. Acta Neuropathol. 2012 Jun;123(6):905–6.
    · Danek A, Jung HH, Melone MAB et al (2005) Neuroacanthocytosis: new developments in a neglected group of dementing disorders. J Neurol
    Sci 229-230:171–186.
    · Danek A, Rubio JP, Rampoldi L et al (2001) McLeod neuroacanthocytosis: Genotype and phenotype. AnnNeurol 50:755–764.
    · Danek A, Tison F, Rubio J et al (2001) The chorea of McLeod syndrome. MovDisord 16:882–889.
    · Kobal J, Dobson-Stone C, Danek A et al (2014) Chorea-acanthocytosis presenting as dystonia. Acta Clin Croat 53:107–112.
    · Liu J, Bader B, Danek A (2014) Neuroacanthocytosis in China: A review of published reports. Tremor Other Hyperkinet Mov (N Y) 4:248.
    · Miquel M et al. Short and long term outcome of bilateral pallidal stimulation in chorea-acanthocytosis. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(11):e79241.
    · Miranda M, Jung HH, Danek A, Walker RH (2012) The chorea of McLeod syndrome: Progression to hypokinesia. Mov Disord 27:1701–1702.
    · Prohaska R et al. Brain, blood, and iron: perspectives on the roles of erythrocytes and iron in neurodegeneration. Neurobiol Dis. 2012;46:607ff.
    · Siegl C et al. Alterations of red cell membrane properties in neuroacanthocytosis. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(10):e76715.
    · Walker RH, Jung HH, Danek A. Neuroacanthocytosis. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol. 100. 2011. p. 141–51.