Halina Offner

Halina Offner, Dr. Med., is a Professor in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Dr. Offner was awarded the prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award in 1994. Beginning in 1995, her interest in the possible causes of increased incidence of MS in females implicated estrogen and estriol as key contributors to this underlying gender difference in murine EAE models of MS. Turning to the role of the immune system in producing CNS damage in middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) during the early 2000’s, her focus resides on the regulatory roles of T-cells and B-cells in EAE and stroke. Dr. Offner holds editorial positions with several journals and is a member of an NIH Study Section.

Dr. Offner graduated from the University of Copenhagen Medical School in 1976 with the esteemed Doctor Medicine Degree, focusing on the immunology of multiple sclerosis (MS). In 1984, she moved her laboratory to OHSU in Portland, OR. There she developed the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model of MS in Lewis rats to study pathogenic mechanisms mediated by myelin antigen-specific T cell lines.