Dr. Fahnestock received her Honours B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of California, Berkeley. Following postdoctoral work in Endocrinology at Baylor College of Medicine and Neurobiology at Stanford University, she moved to the Stanford Research Institute, where her team developed base-by-base DNA sequencing, the basis for today’s DNA sequencing machines. After a sabbatical in the Neurology Department at UCSF, Dr. Fahnestock moved to McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. She is now a Full Professor in McMaster’s Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences Department, an Associate member of the Biology Department, and co-founder of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Dr. Fahnestock is internationally recognized for her work on neurotrophic factor biosynthesis, regulation, expression and signalling, and their roles in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and has been funded continuously for over 35 years by NIH, CIHR and private foundations. She is a past President of the Southern Ontario Neuroscience Association, a co-Team leader for the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, and a co-organizer of the Alzheimer’s track at the annual Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics meeting.

Saranna Fanning is an Assistant Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She received her undergraduate BSc degree from the National University of Ireland, Cork and performed her doctoral research work at Columbia University, NY, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh and the National University of Ireland, Cork (Degree awarding University). Dr. Fanning performed her postdoctoral training in Dr. Susan Lindquist’s lab at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, MA, where she developed her expertise in yeast proteotoxicity models and cellular mechanisms of protein homeostasis with a focus on lipid metabolism in Parkinson’s disease. Her research is focused on understanding the importance of lipid equilibrium in Parkinson’s disease using genetic and biochemical approaches in yeast, mammalian models and patient iPSCs.

2018-2023 PhD Student in Molecular Geriatrics 2018 MSc in Medical Research 2015 MSc Pharmacy

Temitope Farombi is a graduate of University of Ibadan. She trained in internal medicine at the University College Hospital (UCH) and Neurology at UCH Ibadan Nigeria. She obtained master’s degree in Clinical Neuroscience at King’s College London. Dr Farombi is a consultant Neurologist at the Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric center University College Hospital, the first geriatric center in West Africa sub-region. Dr Farombi’s practice specializes in the critical care neurology of the elderly, movement disorders, dementia and headaches. Dr Farombi was a visiting scholar to the Northwestern University Chicago, USA and has published articles in scientific journals.

Michael Fassler is the Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Cognyxx pharmaceuticals, a biotech company with several preclinical programs aimed to halt the progression of severe cardio and neurodegenerative diseases. Michael is a neuroscientist with a vast experience and knowledge in the fields of molecular biology, neurodegenerative diseases, development of in vivo preclinical models and a wide experience in antibody engineering, designing and patenting.

PhD student @DeStrooperLab | @VIBLifeSciences: microglia, CRISPR, AD & some single-cell bioinformagic. Twitter @nfattorelli.

Yuehan Feng, PhD is scientific director for R&D applications at Biognosys. His expertise is centered around proteomics technologies with a strong emphasis on mass spectrometry and chemical biology techniques as well as their applications in biomarker discovery and small molecule drug development. Yuehan obtained his BSc, MSc in interdisciplinary sciences and PhD in structural proteomics from ETH Zurich. Prior to joining Biognosys in 2018, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Genome Technology Center.

Dr. Fernandez has broad expertise and extensive experience in the field of genetics that started with her study of population genetics and phylogenetic analyses in non-model organisms. She now investigates the genetics of neurodegenerative diseases in humans. As a postdoctoral researcher, she dove into the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by analyzing whole-exome sequence data from early onset AD (EOAD) individuals as well as families highly affected by the disease, either late onset AD (LOAD) or autosomal dominant AD (ADAD) families. Now, as an assistant professor she investigates -omic technologies to identify common, altered pathways among the three main AD etiologies (ADAD, EOAD, and LOAD). In addition, she uses iPSC and 3D models to interrogate novel findings and their potential as therapeutic targets in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.

João Pedro Ferrari-Souza is an MD-PhD student at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Also, he is doing part of his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. His research focuses on understanding Alzheimer’s disease etiology and progression using fluid and neuroimaging biomarkers.

Dr. Daniel Ferreira is a Principal Investigator at Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) and Research Affiliate at Mayo Clinic (US). He is Director of the Center for Alzheimer Research at KI (https://ki.se/en/nvs/center-for-alzheimer-research). Main research interest of Dr. Ferreira is Normal Aging and neurodegenerative disorders such as Dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer’s disease. His main focus is on cognition and neuroimaging but genetic factors, CSF biomarkers, and clinical and demographic factors are part of his research as well. More information: https://staff.ki.se/people/daniel-ferreira-padilla twitter: @DrFerreiraD

I'm a pharmacist with a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and my research has been dedicated to developing bioanalytical methods to study biomarkers in different biological fluids focusing on an alternative matrix to use in therapeutic drug monitoring and early diagnostic of different pathologies. Specifically, in the last years, I have dedicated my research to exploring biomarkers' measurement, focusing on the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases. I have been trained to use different techniques to develop, validate and analyze biomarkers using different matrices and methods.

Maria Teresa is a neuroscientist with over 10-year international research experience and a unique expertise in gender medicine. After a master in Pharmacy (University of Cagliari, Italy) and a stage at the Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery of GlaxoSmith&Kline (Harlow, England), she obtained a PhD in Pharmacology at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) with a thesis on the role of inflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease. In 2011 she joined the Nitsch’s lab (University of Zurich, Switzerland) as postdoc and group leader, to further study the role of the immune system in Alzheimer’s using deep-immunophenotyping techniques. In 2016 Maria Teresa co-founded the non-profit organization ‘Women’s Brain Project’, which studies sex and gender determinants to brain and mental health as gateway to precision medicine (www.womensbrainproject.com). Her work as WBP Chief Scientific Officer led to several scientific publications, policy papers, books and book chapters, TED-x talks and coverage by the national and the international press. Maria Teresa is also an external teacher at the Medical University of Vienna (Austria), faculty member of the Certificate for Advance studies on gender medicine at University of Zurich and member of the Advisory Board of the Connors Center at the Women’s and Brigham’s Hospital in Boston. In 2021, with Dr Santuccione, she co-authored the book ‘Una bambina senza testa’ (Edizioni Mondo Nuovo).