Board of SNaNe

Prof. Claudio Bassetti, President

Claudio L. Bassetti is full professor of neurology and vice-dean of the medical faculty at the University of Bern.

He is the director of the neurology department, speaker of Neurocenter and director of the University Sleep-Wake-Epilepsy Center (SWEZ) at the University Hospital (Inselspital) in Bern.

Claudio Bassetti received his MD degree from the University of Basel in 1984. He trained in neurology in Bern and Lausanne (FMH certification in 1992), and performed research fellowships in basic neurophysiology (Basel, 1985-1986) and sleep medicine (Ann Arbor-Michigan, USA, 1995-6). In 1997 he became associate professor at the University of Bern.

In 2000 he was appointed professor of neurology at the university of Zurich and director of the neurological outpatient clinics of the university hospital. In 2009 he founded the Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland which he directed until 2012.

Claudio Bassetti has authored eight books and over 370 scientific publications (CI>12’000; H-index 60).

His research interests include sleep, stroke, and movement disorders with a translational (human and animal) approach. He served as president of the European Neurological Society (ENS, 2013-4), European Sleep Research Society (ESRS, 2008-12) and Swiss Neurological Society (SNG, 2008-12). He was the founder and first president of the Swiss Federation of Clinical Neurosocieties (SFCNS, 2009-13).

Currently he is board member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMW) and the Swiss Clinical Trails Organization (SCTO).

Claudio Bassetti received the M. Aldrich Award in 2008 and the Pisa Sleep Award in 2010. He is honorary member of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN).

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Prof. Dr. Ramin Khatami, Vice-Pesident

Ramin Khatami is Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Bern and head of the Center of Sleep Medicine and Epileptology at Clinic Barmelweid, Switzerland. Ramin Khatami obtained his MD at Berlin Free University, and was trained in neurology at Dept. of Neurology University Erfurt and Freie Universität Berlin. He became head of the EEG laboratory at Epilepsy Department at Charité Berlin Humboldt University, Germany. In 2003 he received a postdoc research grant to work at the Neurology Department, University Hospital (Prof. Dr. C. Bassetti) and at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, section sleep and circadian rhythms (Prof. Dr. A. Borbèly).

In 2008, he obtained his habilitation at the University of Zurich. He is currently Associate Professor and head of Sleep Medicine, Epileptology and Sleep Research, at the Clinic Barmelweid running 12 fully equipped inpatients recording units and a huge outpatient ambulatory unit (>2000 patients/year).

Ramin Khatami heads a team of 32 members, including a research group. His research focus is on the diagnosis and pathophysiology of narcolepsy and other hypersomnias of central origin using electrophysiology and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) together with advanced data analysis methods including machine learning. He was one of the founding members of the European Narcolepsy Network (EU-NN) and responsible for launching the international EU-NN database on narcolepsy in 2010

Dr. sc. nat. Esther Werth,  Secretary

Esther Werth is a somnologist at the Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich. She is co-director of the clinical sleep laboratory at the department. Esther Werth is a natural scientist, trained in sleep research and holds a PhD from ETH Zürich. She received chronobiological training during her postdoc in Basel and then she extended her sleep expertise by moving into the field of sleep medicine. Esther Werth holds a “Somnologist” qualification of a non-medical academic sleep medicine expert from the Swiss Society of Sleep Research, Sleep Medicine and Chronobiology (SSSSC). Furthermore, she obtained one of the first “Expert Somnologist” certificate of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) in 2012. Since then Esther Werth has taken on many clinical tasks at the Sleep Medicine Center of the University Hospital Zurich and leads a small research group. Furthermore, she is a board member of the Sleep & Health Center of Competence of the University of Zürich. One of her research interests is sleep-wake regulation in central hypersomnolence disorders.

Prof. Dr. med Silvia Miano, MAL, pediatric aspect of narcolepsy

Silvia Miano is currently the Head of Clinic at Civic Hospital of Lugano, Neurocenter of the Southern Switzerland Sleep and Epilepsy Center, Lugano. She received her MD degree from La Sapienza University, Rome, in 1997, and she was trained in Developmental Neuropsychiatry in Rome (FMH in paediatric psychiatry). She obtained a Phd in Pediatric Science in 2010. She was enabled as Associate Professor in Developmental Neuropsychiatry, Italian National Concourse, in 2014. She worked at the Sleep Disease Centre, Paediatric Department, Sant’Andrea Hospital, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy. The main field of her research has been focused on clinical studies about paediatric sleep neurophysiology, sleep disorders and epilepsy, sleep maturation and cognition, and hypersomnolence. She has been a member of the Task Force Group for the Clinical practice guideline, for the Diagnosis and management of obstructive sleep-disordered breathing in childhood, European Respiratory Society. She was awarded at the Winner Hospes Sueños 2007 International Award: Second Position: She has been authors of numerous international abstracts, papers, chapters of book (CI:>1200, HI 20). She have been invited as a Professor to teach in several national and international courses (i.e European Sleep Research Society). She is Professor of “Master on line en Sueño: Fisiología y Medicina, “Tema 10. Insomnio en la infancia y en el adolescente. She was part of local Commitee of the Swiss Society for Sleep Research Sleep Medicine and Chronobiology Congress in Lugano, in 2017.

Dr. med Elena Wenz, MAL

Elena Wenz is a resident at the Department for Neurology at the University Hospital in Bern and a PhD student at the Graduate School for Health Sciences at the University of Bern. She obtained her medical and her doctoral degree in 2015 at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, in Germany. After her training in internal medicine in Trondheim, Norway, she continued her education in neurology at the University Hospital in Bern. There, she joined the Sleep-Wake-Epilepsy-Center and the sleep research group in 2019. Her research focuses on optimizing diagnostic procedures and care for patients with central disorders of hypersomnolence. She is primarily involved in the realization of the “Swiss Primary Hypersomnolence and Narcolepsy Cohort Study” (SPHYNCS), a national prospective observational multicenter study with the goal to identify new biomarkers for central disorders of hypersomnolence.