Ms. Priscilla A. Amofa-Ho., M.A., M.S., completed her undergraduate degree at Carleton College with a major in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. After a one-year service with the AmeriCorps VISTA program upon graduating undergraduate, Priscilla took a clinical research coordinator position at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Rush University Medical Center (RADC), Chicago. In this position, she obtained and examined biological samples in quest of identifying biomarkers for various Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (ADRDs), as well as enrolled and administered neurocognitive assessments to diverse research participants in different clinical trials aimed at preventing or reducing further cognitive decline. At the RADC, Priscilla worked under the mentorship of Drs. Robert Wilson, PhD; Lisa Barnes,PhD; Neelum Aggarwal, MD; Debra Fleischman, PhD; Raj Shah, MD; and Melissa Lamar, PhD. During her time at Rush, she also completed her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Roosevelt University, with a one-year internship at an in-patient psychiatric ward at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago under the mentorship of Dr. Sandra Swantek, DO. Priscilla entered the Clinical and Health Psychology program at the University of Florida in the fall of 2018, with a major area of study in Clinical Neuropsychology under the mentorship of Drs. Glenn Smith, PhD and Shellie-Anne Levy, PhD. Under their mentorship, she was selected as an NIH ADRD T32 fellow engaging in advanced training and coursework in ADRD research and had the opportunity to join experts in finding biomarkers and interventions related to ADRD. Priscilla’s research and clinical interests are in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), ADRDs, implementation of behavioral interventions to prevent or delay cognitive impairment, cross-cultural translation of assessment measures, and adaptation of behavioral interventions for underserved populations. Specifically, she is interested in identifying biomarkers and risk factors that predict cognitive decline in older adults and employing lifestyle modifications to mitigate cognitive decline.

I am a postdoc at UCSF in the Department of Radiology. My work comprises of brain imaging of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease to study brain metabolism. I also work on applying mathematical models to data on Alzheimer's pathology (tau for instance) with the intention of modeling pathology progression in this disease. My doctoral work on cognitive aging and brain metabolism instigated a curiosity about pathological aging (neurodegenerative disorders) and led me to pursue my postdoc in this field at UCSF.

Dr. Neda Anastassova is a fundamental researcher in organic and pharmaceutical chemistry working towards the development of new more effective multi-target drugs for the treatment of incurable diseases with free-radical processes related etiology that represent major global challenges, such as neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. At present she is a postdoctoral student and a Senior Assistant Professor at the Institute of Organic Chemistry with Centre of Phytochemistry (IOCCP) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS).

Emelie Andersson is a PhD student in Professor Oskar Hansson's research group at the Clinical Memory Research Unit, Lund University. Her research is focused on understanding the neurobiological correlates behind changes in clinically relevant fluid biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease by using different mouse models that recapitulate key pathological characteristics of the disease.

Stéphanie Andrade is a PhD student of Biological and Chemical Engineering at Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). She obtained her MSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2015. Her main research activity is focused on: i) production and characterization of nanoparticles for the encapsulation of bioactive compounds for pharmaceutical application; ii) effects of bioactive compounds on the aggregation kinetics of amyloid beta peptide; iii) membrane biophysics, more particularly in drug-membrane interactions which involves drugs’ pharmacological activity and toxicity.

AYJNISHD (D), Mumbai, India

Dr. Liana Apostolova earned her M.D. from the Medical University, Sofia, Bulgaria Summa Cum Laude. She completed her postdoctoral residency training in neurology at University of Iowa before serving as the Tichi Wilkerson-Kassel Dementia Fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of California Los Angeles. Apostolova joined the IU School of Medicine in 2015 as professor of neurology, radiology, and medical and molecular genetics, and Barbara and Peer Baekgaard Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research. Dr. Apostolova’s early research focused on the early and pre-symptomatic stages of Alzheimer’s disease and the development and validation of sensitive imaging and genetic biomarkers for Alzheimer’s and other dementing disorders. Her groundbreaking research explores the intersection of cognition, neuroimaging, blood-based biomarkers, and genetics. This work has established the potential for identifying subjects who are at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease and established associations of Alzheimer genes with important disease pathways which could serve as a blueprint for developing new treatments. Her reputation as a world leader in Alzheimer's disease clinical investigation led to her becoming the principal investigator of the largest single NIH grant ever received by a scientist at IU. She is the Principal Investigator of the Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease Study (LEADS). This project established a national consortium focused on early-onset AD. Dr. Apostolova has authored or co-authored over 100 scholarly articles and 15 book chapters. Her work has been cited close to 15,000 times with an h-index of 61. She has served as the PI or co-PI on studies funded by the NIH, AHA, Roche Diagnostics, and the Alzheimer’s Association. Among her awards are the AFAR‐GE Healthcare Junior Investigator Award for Excellence in Imaging and Aging Research; the AAN Research Award in Geriatric Neurology; the Dorothy Dillon Eweson Lectureship on the Advances in Aging Research; and the Alzheimer’s Association de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging, Senior Scientist Category. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology in 2015 and as the Editor-In-Chief for Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring in 2021. For her extensive contributions to science, she was elected Distinguished Professor of Neurology at Indiana University in 2021.

Dr. Xianghong Arakaki is assistant professor, neurosciences, electrophysiology at Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI). She joined HMRI with Dr. Michael Harrington after her Ph.D. in 2007, led by her interests in neurophysiology and clinical disease. Xianghong received her MD from the Medical College of Tongji University and her MS in Neurobiology from the Medical Center of Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Xianghong got her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Dept. of Anatomy & Neurobiology of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. Since joining HMRI in 2007, Xianghong has developed a great interest in migraine research. She improved her skills in electrophysiology and molecular biology in migraine research and in collaboration with her colleagues. Specifically, she has cultured primary rat hippocampal pyramidal cells and carried out patch clamp studies to provide supportive evidence for Dr. Harrington’s sodium theory of migraine. NEURON simulation together with Dr. Harrington’s MRI sodium imaging gave further proof for sodium-related neuronal hyperexcitability in migraine. Brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) studies in rat migraine model fuel her passion for translational research between animal models and humans. Her ongoing animal project includes the somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) in the rat migraine model with her colleagues Dr. Harrington and collaborator Dr. Shoaran. Xianghong is now exploring human neurophysiological studies with great enthusiasm, including evoked potentials (EPs), event-related potentials (ERPs), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) (together with Thao Tran and Dr. Kevin King), to investigate the underlying mechanisms of migraine, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and other conditions. Specifically, using EEG time-frequency analysis developed at HMRI and with her colleagues Dr. Harrington, Dr. Fonteh, and Dr. King, as well as with collaborator Dr. Zouridakis, Xianghong is identifying EEG spectral power signatures during brain challenge testing or functional EEG that are potential indicators of mTBI or pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease. The goal of her research would be to develop and apply non-invasive neurophysiological skills to clinic neurological conditions, including migraine, mTBI, and Alzheimer’s disease. In October 2019, Xianghong was elected for a two-year term to serve as a Steering Committee Member of the Electrophysiology PIA Executive Committee of the Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART).

Dr. Ottavio Arancio received his Ph.D and M.D. from the University of Pisa (Italy). From 1981 to 1986 he took residency training in Neurology at the University of Verona (Italy). Dr. Arancio has held Faculty appointments at Columbia University, NYU School of Medicine and at SUNY HSCB. Dr Arancio is a cellular neurobiologist who has contributed to the characterization of the mechanisms of learning in both normal conditions and during neurodegenerative diseases. During the last twenty years he has pioneered the field of mechanisms of synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Arancio’s laboratory has focused primarily on events triggered by oligomeric proteins including amyloid-beta and tau. These studies have suggested new links between synaptic dysfunction and dementia, both for understanding the etiopathogenesis of Alzheimer’ disease and traumatic brain injury, and for developing therapies aiming to improve the cognitive symptoms.

Rui Araújo, MD, FEBN is a neurologist working in Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João, in Porto, Portugal. He is a fellow of the European Board of Neurology since 2017. He works primarily with persons with cognitive impairment (mild cognitive impairment and dementia) and movement disorders (Parkinson's disease and hyperkinetic syndromes). He is also interested in functional neurological disorders. He is defending his Ph.D. thesis in march/2022, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bastiaan Bloem at Radboud University. He is also vice-president of the Portuguese Neurological Society and a member of the Communication Oversight Committee of the Movement Disorders Society.

"Samira joined Genetech in Nov 2019, after completing her postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Coming from a bioengineering background, Samira has extensive experience in various computational modeling approaches to study biological systems including cardiovascular system, lymphatic system, and cancer systems immunology. At Genentech, Samira has led the disease progression modeling effort for Alzheimer's Disease to support the Semorinemab program. "

Arsequell is a Senior Researcher with >30 years of expertise in Medicinal Chemistry. Group leader of the Unit of Glycoconjugate Chemistry at IQAC-CSIC. Arsequell holds degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, with a PhD in Organic Chemistry (UAB), and a postdoctoral stay at the Glycobiology Institute (Univ. of Oxford, UK) as Marie Curie Fellow. Past areas of interest of the group were glycoimmunology, analgesia (chronic pain) and prion diseases. Arsequell started to work in the Amyloidosis field in year 2000, a pioneer research area in Spain, thanks to a grant from Fundació La Caixa to Prof. Barluenga (IV Neurodegenerative diseases call). Current research activities are transthyretin (TTR)-amyloidosis rare diseases and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). All these activities carried out in multidisciplinary projects at national and international level. Arsequell has been coordinator of two different Drug Discovery projects funded by Fundació Marató de TV3 (Spain). The first one entitled “Drug discovery for transthyretin related amyloid rare diseases” aimed at discovery of TTR tetramer stabilisers as drugs candidates. A lead compound iododiflunisal (IDIF) was discovered. Arsequell has also been coordinator in a Drug Discovery program in AD: “Setting a rational screening programme for transthyretin-Aβ binding stabilizing compounds that may lead to potential Alzheimer’s disease modulating drugs” (5 teams). By integrating different expertises, we have discovered a prioritized list of the best small-molecule compounds (chaperones) enhancing the TTR/Abeta interaction, among them some drugs that can be repurposed. Our TTR tetramer stabilizer IDIF can modulate BBB-crossing capacity of TTR. A longitudinal molecular imaging study in a transgenic AD mouse model treated with IDIF reveals that IDIF delays hippocampal amyloidosis. Results of the consortium have encouraged us to investigate the neuroprotective role of TTR in different processes of the pathogenesis of AD.

Andrew (Andy) Aschenbrenner, PhD is an Instructor of Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis. He has expertise in the development, administration, and analysis of cognitive and behavioral tests in healthy older adults and individuals with preclinical and very mild Alzheimer disease (AD). His current interests include evaulating the utility of intraindividual variability in cognition and personality as predictors of AD risk. He is also interested in applying novel statistical techniques (e.g., dynamic structural equation modeling) and computational models to further understand cognitive changes in the earliest stages of AD.

Uri Ashery is the head of the learning and memory lab and leads an interdisciplinary research team focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of learning and memory, and their link to neurodegenerative diseases. His lab combines multidisciplinary approaches such as electrophysiology, super resolution and TIRF microscopy, Molecular and cellular neurobiology and computer modeling to study synaptic plasticity and correlate between molecular changes and synaptic function and dysfunction. Educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ashery completed his BSc in 1990 in biology and chemistry with distinction, and his PhD in 1996 in neurobiology cum laude. He completed his post-doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany, in 2001 before returning to Israel to join TAU as a lecturer. In 2011, Ashery spearheaded the establishment of the Tel Aviv University Sagol School of Neuroscience, a unique multidisciplinary "ecosystem" and was leading the school till 2020. The Sagol School is now Israel’s largest and leading neuroscience institute, with over 170 research groups led by internationally renowned scientists and clinicians.