Anne Paakinaho (Pharmacist (MSc), BSc Biosciences) works as an early stage researcher at the University of Eastern Finland and is working towards PhD (Pharm) in the field of pharmacoepidemiology. The principal aim of her doctoral thesis is to study how use of certain drugs is associated with risk of Parkinson’s disease by using register-based cohort of community-dwelling Finns with clinically verified Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Padmanabhan is a research fellow at the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia, Australia. He combines mathematical modelling, statistical analyses, and advanced imaging such as super-resolution microscopy to understand the molecular pathomechanisms and the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

MSc in Biomedical Engineering and Biophysics, from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. First year PhD Candidate at Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands, working with perfusion imaging ASL-MRI, investigating Bloood-Brain Barrier integrity and ASL image processing standardization, under the supervision of Dr. Henk-Jan Mutsaerts and Prof. Frederik Barkhof. Previous experience in neuroscience research, including a research internship with DTI and imaging analysis at Utrecht, Netherlands, with Prof. Geert-Jan Biessels.

Physician-neuroscientist and pharma medical director with 10+ years of translational research in academia and early clinical development. Board-certified in movement disorders and geriatric neurology with broad hands-on experience across multiple therapeutic areas, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, common and rare movement disorders (e.g. Huntington’s disease), epilepsy and sleep disorders. Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master in Epidemiology (MSc), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Clinical Neuroscience and postdoctoral training in PET molecular imaging with focus on genetics, preclinical and prodromal Parkinson’s disease. Designed, implemented and led several Phase 0, 1 and Phase 2 proof-of-concept trials in academia and in industry, with 90+ peer-reviewed publications in the field of common and rare movement disorders and dementias (h-index: 36). Global regulatory experience with multiple interactions and face-to-face meetings (e.g. EMA, EunetHA, etc.). Servant leader encourages colleagues to step outside of their comfort zones and show intelligent disobedience, using a collaborative, inspiring and empowering style and micromanage-free guidance.

Sebastian Palmqvist is a senior consultant neurologist at the Memory Clinic of Skåne University Hospital in Malmö and an associate professor in neuroscience at Lund University in Sweden. During the last 15 years, dr Palmqvist’s research has been focused on cognitive assessments and biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease for improving clinical diagnostics. He has published more than 80 articles including first/last author publications in journals such as JAMA, Nature Medicine, Brain, JAMA Neurology, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, EMBO Molecular Medicine and Neurology. Dr Palmqvist is active as a clinician, researcher, teacher and supervisor.

I am genuinely interested in solving problems and asking complex questions. This has drawn me to specialise in molecular neurobiology, with a particular interest in neuroepigenetic regulation of the heathy and diseased brain. I have been interested in brain physiology since my BSc studies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF, Barcelona, Spain), and specifically in neurodegeneration during my BSc and MSc placements under the supervision of Dr Francisco J Muñoz (UPF). For my PhD, I joined Prof Carlos G Dotti’s laboratory at the Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (Madrid, Spain), where I became interested in epigenetic regulation of genes in the healthy ageing brain and in neurodegeneration. For my post-doc, I joined Prof Patricia C Salinas’ laboratory at University College London (London, United Kingdom), where I applied my interest for neuroepigenetics into studying the deregulation of Wnt signalling components in Alzheimer’s disease. To conduct my postdoctoral research, I obtained the Maire-Curie fellowship and a research grant from Alzheimer’s Research UK.

My name is Ravi Shanker Pandey. I am Bioinformatics Analysis in the Carter lab at the Jackson Laboratory. My work entailed developing computational pipelines and employing computational strategies on a large scale genomic data to understand the genetics of neurodegenerative diseases.Specifically analyzing data from clinical samples and mouse models of Alzheimer's disease to determine how genetic risk factors lead to dementia and identify relevance of disticnt mouse models for Alzheimer's disease.

My previous research experience has been obtained studying two aspects of the protein degradation machinery. In Rosine Haguenauer-Tsapis’ laboratory, I worked on the role of Lys63-linked ubiquitin chains in the MVB sorting of membrane proteins in the endocytic pathway. In Prof. Per Ljungdahl’s laboratory, I focused on the protein quality control mediated by the Ubiquitin Proteasome System. More specifically, I studied the function and turnover of three inner nuclear membrane (INM) proteins comprising the ASI complex. The projects I was involved in during my studies were formatted into five manuscripts published in scientific journals among them a publication in ´´Nature’’, where we designated a novel degradative pathway INMAD, i.e. INM associated degradation, which is functionally required to maintain and safeguard the integrity of the INM. The last five years, as a post-doctoral fellow in Prof. Leonidas Stefanis laboratory at BRFAA, I have focused my research interests on understanding how cellular protein degradative processes and Parkinson’s Disease (PD) are coupled. I have developed a novel cell system enabling us to follow α-Synuclein (α-Syn) aggregation and degradation, a work supported by Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 and published last year in the Journal of Neurochemistry. Currently, I am working on endocytosis of exosomes loaded with α-Syn, the degradation process involved and the subsequent release through exosomes in neuronal and glial cells, a project supported by NSRF (2nd Call for the support of PostDoc Researchers).

Dominik Paquet is a Professor at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD) of the University Hospital of LMU Munich, Germany. He received his PhD for work with Christian Haass at LMU Munich and performed postdoctoral work as a NYSCF Druckenmiller Fellow with Marc Tessier-Lavigne at Rockefeller University, where he developed efficient technologies to gene-edit iPSCs with CRISPR, differentiate them into human brain cells and model Alzheimer's disease. In 2017 Dr. Paquet established the PaquetLab (www.isd-research.de/PaquetLab) at ISD and currently serves as Professor of Neurobiology and core member of Synergy (www.synergy-munich.de), a leading Research Cluster of the Excellence Initiative of the German research funding organization. Using his broad background in neurodegenerative disease research, with specific training and expertise in molecular, stem cell and neurobiology, he leads an interdisciplinary team of neurobiologists, biochemists, and stem cell biologists. The PaquetLab uses cutting-edge technologies such as CRISPR genome editing, iPSC differentiation and human 3D tissue engineering to elucidate the molecular function of the human brain and the mechanisms leading to neurodegenerative and neurovascular diseases.

Dr. Don Gueu Park is a clinical assistant professor at Parkinson Center, Ajou University School of Medicine. His current research focuses on plasma biomarkers and their associations with molecular neuroimaging in Parkinson's disease and other parkinsonian syndromes. After graduating from Ajou University School of Medicine, he completed his residency and movement disorders fellowship at Ajou University Hospital.

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