Laurent Servais is Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases at the University of Oxford in the UK, and invited Professor at the University of Liège in Belgium. He graduated in medicine and pediatrics from the University of Louvain (in Louvain-la-Neuve and Brussels in Belgium) then trained as a child neurologist in the Robert Debré Hospital in Paris, France, and as a myologist at the Institute of Myology, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Paris.

Professor Servais’ main research interests cover innovative outcome measures and clinical trials design and newborn screening (NBS). He has been involved as Principal Investigator in several clinical trials in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Angelman Syndrome X-linked myotubular myopathy, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and in leading the NBS program for SMA NBS in Belgium and in the UK. He is the coordinating investigator of two large natural history studies in Angelman in the UK and in Belgium that aims to identify and validates innovative outcome measures and biomarkers.

Professor Servais leads the pioneering genomic NBS program “Baby Detect” that aims to screen at birth all treatable and severe conditions. His other research interest covers innovative digital outcome measures derived from magneto-inertial sensors. He has been leading the discovery, validation and qualification of the Stride Velocity 95 th centile- the first digital outcome qualified by a regulatory agency. He currently pursues a similar effort in a broad range of neuromuscular conditions as wells as in Angelman, ALS, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson.

Professor Servais has authored or co-authored over 180 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Neurology, Lancet Neurology, PNAS, JAMA Neurology,  JNNP, Neurology and Molecular Therapy.