Medical doctor with main interest in neuropathology of the brain. Studying the eye as a patient-friendly, low-cost and potentially early detection biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases in the brain.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Hartmann is the coordinator of the European Union funded LipiDiDiet / LipiDiet projects and trials. He is a specialist on lipids and nutrition in Alzheimer’s disease and discovered multiple molecular pathways related to these topics. He is director of the German Institute for Dementia Prevention (DIDP) and Chair of Experimental Neurology at the Saarland University Faculty of Medicine. He published over 160 articles on Alzheimer’s disease. The German Institute for Dementia Prevention (DIDP) focus is the development of innovative preventive approaches to Alzheimer’s disease and their practical implementation. The institute’s research spans a wide array of activities, from molecular science to artificial intelligence. They are best known for their long-standing scientific contribution on the role of lipid metabolic pathways and nutrition in AD pathogenesis and prevention.

Dr. Heckmann is a principal investigator at the USF Health Neuroscience Institute & Byrd Alzheimer’s Center and serves as the director of the Byrd Institute’s Center for Spatial Biology & Neuroimmunology. He holds appointments as an Assistant Professor in Molecular Medicine and Affiliate Professor in Medical Engineering at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Dr. Heckmann also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at Asha Therapeutics. Dr. Heckmann’s major scientific discoveries have included the discovery and characterization of LC3-associated endocytosis (LANDO) as an immune regulatory mechanism in neurodegenerative diseases and neuroinflammation, research published in Cell and Science Advances. His academic laboratory is currently focused on characterizing the role of neuroinflammation and pathways that govern microglial activation including LANDO in multiple neurological diseases. Dr. Heckmann received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kentucky where he studied Biology and Chemical Engineering and his Doctoral Degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr. Heckmann has received multiple awards and honors including a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, an Excellence in Science Award from the AAAS, and an Early Career Research Award from the American Association of Immunologists amongst others.

Susan Edgar Helm, PhD, RDN, FAND, is a Professor of Nutritional Science in Seaver College, at Pepperdine University and Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics and Nutritional Science Certificate Program-Individualized Supervised Practice Pathway. She received the 2016 Outstanding Dietetics Educator Award from the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She served as Chair of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation Scholarship committee. Dr. Helm holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Physiological Chemistry with an emphasis in Metabolism and Biostatistics from University of California, Davis, a Master’s of Science in Nutrition from Texas A & M University, College Station and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Cornell University. She completed a one-year dietetic internship at Texas A & M University. Dr. Helm has a personal and professional interest in nutrition literacy, homeless food resources, nutrigenomics, and diet/nutrition modulation of human metabolism. She has 30 years experience teaching introductory to advanced courses in dietetics and nutrition curriculum. Using latest, evidence-based teaching methodology is a passion and she has adopted a variety of approaches to maintain the engagement of her students with material related to the Dietetics/Nutrition profession. Dr. Helm’s lab group to focuses upon mapping dietary influences upon folate metabolism in both Down Syndrome and Alzheimer diseases interlacing the fields of genetics, metabolic nutrition, and neuroscience. She is frequently asked to be a speaker about topics related to diet, nutrition, and genetics.

Dr. Elisabeth Hendrickx Van de Craen is a medical doctor and neurology trainee at the University Hospitals in Antwerp and Brussels, with special emphasis and training in dementia care and Alzheimer's disease. She is currently a PhD student within the neurodegenerative brain disease research group, led by Professor Christine Van Broeckhoven at the VIB Center for Molecular Neurology at the University of Antwerp. Dr. Hendrickx’s research interests are in the fields of Alzheimer’s disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Her research focuses on genotype-phenotype correlations, specifically she studied patients and families carrying ABCA7 mutations and autosomal dominant pathogenic mutations.

Michael Heneka studied medicine in Tübingen, Lausanne and London from 1990-1996. He obtained his medical degree at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Univ. of Tübingen for which he received the 1998 Attempto Award of the Univ. of Tübingen. He started his clinical residency in neurology at the Dept. of Neurology of the Univ. of Tübingen in 1996 and joined the Dept. of Neurology at the Univ. of Bonn in 1999. After his clinical board examination (2002) and habilitation (2003) he took the chair as professor for molecular neurology at the Univ. of Münster in 2004. In 2008 he was appointed professor for clinical neurosciences at the Univ. of Bonn heading the DFG Clinical Research Unit 177. Since 2016 Prof. Heneka serves as the Chair of the Dept. of Neurodegenerative Disease and Geriatric Psychiatry at the Univ. of Bonn and as head of the Neuroinflammation group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE). His scientific interests focus on the role of immune mechanisms in neurological disorders. Beyond his research, Michael Heneka serves as Associate Editor of Alzheimer Research & Therapy and as editorial board member of Molecular Neurobiology and Aging Brain. He is the organizing chair of the biennial conference “Venusberg Meeting on Neuroinflammation”. In 2011 he received the Christa Lorenz Award for ALS Research and in 2013 the Hans und Ilse Breuer Award for Alzheimer Research.

Shay is a PhD student in professor Offen's lab of translational neuroscience at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. She acquired her B.Sc. in Biology at the Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed her M.Sc. with honors in Biomedical Sciences with specialization in genomics and stem cell research, under supervision of Dr. Yossi Buganim in the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During her master's degree she founded BioStart- a community designed to connect students to the biotech industry and the world of entrepreneurship in Jerusalem. After finishing her degree, she acquired experience in the biotechnology industry working as a research at Enlivex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., an immunotherapy company based in Jerusalem. For her PhD, Shay chose to focus on understanding the prion-like transmission of protein aggregations via exosomes in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and developing novel therapeutic strategies to halt these diseases progression.