Emanuela graduated in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Milan in 2009. In 2010, she won the Lifelong Learning Programme Leonardo da Vinci scholarship to perform an internship at the University of Lincoln, Department of Biological Science under the supervision of Professor Daniel S. Mills. In 2011, she became a phD student of the European Project Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) and, in 2014, Emanuela developed the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) a pioneering pain indicator based on facial expressions. Since her PhD in Animal Production, she worked at the University of Milan as post-doc and research fellow. She became a Diplomate of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine in 2014. Emanuela’s research encompasses various aspects of animal welfare. She is interested in pain assessment in horses and how pain can influence welfare and human-animal relationship, the use of biomarkers as innovative indicators for pain assessment. Emanuela has published over 40 articles in peer-reviewed veterinary journals and lectures regularly at national and international courses/conferences on equine pain assessment and welfare.

Dr. Alonso Guedes is a DVM, PhD and board certified veterinary anesthesiologist interested in understanding how calcium and lipid signaling are involved in chronic disease biology. Diseases of interest include osteoarthritis, laminitis and asthma.

Casper graduated as a veterinarian in 2002. After a few years in mixed rural practices, Casper returned to the University of Copenhagen first as an intern and later as a PhD fellow from 2005-2008. He was awarded his PhD for the dissertation 'Intra-articular morphine in horses - Clinical properties in lipopolysaccharide-induced synovitis' in 2009. From 2008-2011 Casper completed the ECVS standard residency programme and became a diplomate of the ECVS in 2012. He has published research within the fields of equine pain management, equine pain evaluation, colic treatment and prognosis, minimally invasive surgery and upper respiratory disease diagnosis. Casper was been part of the surgery team at Evidensia Animal Hospital in Helsingborg, Sweden for 10 years during which time he became Head of Equine Surgery in September 2012.

Casper is now a professor at the Large Animal Teaching Hospital of the University of Copenhagen.

Doctor Thijs van Loon graduated in 2000 from the Utrecht Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. After graduating, he worked for 3 years in a mixed private practice. After the first year with a lot of general practice, he started to focus on equine anesthesia and internal medicine. In early 2004 he returned to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht and received a training position in veterinary anesthesiology, pain management and Intensive Care. Simultaneously with the training programme, Thijs started a doctoral research into local pain relief techniques in horses (including epidural anesthesia) and into the objective measurement of pain manifestations. 

In 2012, Thijs passed his exams for the European register of specialists and became a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists and Analgesia (ECVAA). In the same year he completed his PhD and defended his dissertation in the Academy Building in Utrecht entitled “Analgesia in the Horse, various approaches for assessment and treatment of pain and nociception in equines”. 

Between 2012 and 2021 Thijs continued to work at the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care of the University Clinic for Horses in Utrecht. He has guided countless students, interns and specialists in training. In addition to his work in the clinic, he continued research into making acute and chronic pain measurable in horses and donkeys. This resulted, among other things, in the development of the EPWA (Equine Pain and Welfare App) app. This app, with which pain signals in horses and donkeys can be objectively measured, was developed with the cooperation of colleagues and research students, supported by the Friends of Veterinary Medicine Foundation and the Paardenkamp Foundation. A version that can be used for working horses and donkeys in developing countries is being developed, with support from Brooke Hospital for Animals. 

Thijs has been working at SMDC since in September 2021. Both in Heesch and in the international clinics of Altano, he uses his knowledge and experience to supervise (sometimes complex) anesthesia and sedation procedures and to contribute to the further development of pain relief for various disorders. Thijs also provides refresher courses in anesthesia and pain relief for Altano Academy. Since the beginning of 2023, Thijs combines his work for SMDC and Altano with working at the department of clinical sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.