Dr. Naj is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses primarily on the genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and neurodegeneration, including genome-wide association analyses in the Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) and the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP) and whole-exome sequence and whole genome-sequencing studies in the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). Dr. Naj is one of several project leads performing association analyses in multi-ancestry case-control, prospective cohorts, and family-based studies in the ADGC Multi-Ancestry Analysis project. He is also involved in developing and analysis of large WGS datasets (>35,000 subjects) for the ADSP Follow-Up Studies as the Statistical Analysis Core Leader in the Genome Center for Alzheimer’s Disease (GCAD), the Penn-based sequencing core and repository for the ADSP. Dr. Naj’s current research portfolio includes several grants exploring the shared genetic contributors (pleiotropy) between AD and other ADRDs and several projects integrating multi-omics and extended phenotype data into genomic analyses.

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Nara is one of the co-founders, the Chief Scientific Officer and President Business Development for Keystone Bio Inc. in St. Louis, Mo., a Systemic-Oral Health Biotech with bio-therapeutics fand CDx or the elimination of a specific oral virulent bacterial associated with systemic inflammation. He holds a M.Sc. in Immuno-pharmacology, a combined Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Ph.D. (retro-virology/oncogenesis) from The Ohio State University, 4 year combined residency in Comparative Pathology and NIH post-doctoral Fellowship at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and a NIH. He is also elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011 and distinguished Alumni of The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine 2014.

Dr. Nedelkov is a proven leader in clinical MS assays and technology development, with 20+ years scientific and management experience. Dr. Nedelkov received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Arizona State University in 1997. After a year as a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University, Dr. Nedelkov joined Intrinsic Bioprobes where over the span of 15 years he progressed through the ranks to ultimately become Scientific Director and CEO of the company, leading the early commercialization efforts in technology development for targeted proteomics and protein biomarkers. Following an acquisition by Thermo Scientific, Dr. Nedelkov joined the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University in 2013 as a group leader of the Molecular Biomarkers Unit, focusing on proteoform biomarker discovery, validation, and translation. In 2017 Dr. Nedelkov started Isoformix with the goal of translating MS protein tests into the clinic. Dr. Nedelkov has authored over 100 peer reviewed scientific articles, presented at more than 60 scientific meetings, has 4 issued patents, and has served as a principal investigator on numerous NIH grants.

Postdoctoral scientist, Dept of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA Dept. Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Dr Neitzel’s research interest is to understand why some people are more resilient against age-related cognitive decline and dementia – important, yet missing knowledge which could inform better prevention programs. For addressing this question, she combines her knowledge on cognition and brain imaging gained during her under- and postgraduate studies (TUM & LMU Munich, Germany), with her postdoctoral work on genetic and modifiable risk factors of dementia (LMU; Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Her work focuses on the preclinical stage of dementia, where people would most likely benefit from prevention programs. In 2021, Dr Neitzel was awarded an EU Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship to work with Prof Dr Albert Hofman (HSPH, Boston, USA) and Prof Dr Meike Vernooij (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL) to deepen our understanding of how a person's genetics interact with risk and resilience factors in the development of Alzheimer's-type brain and cognitive changes. The goal is to identify the best target group for lifestyle intervention programs against dementia. twitter: @julia_neitzel

I am currently a PhD student at the Czech Technical University under the supervision of prof Olga Stepankova. I have a background in engineering with a degree in Cybernetics, robotics and biomedical engineering. The focus of my research lies in applying advanced machine learning methods to structural, diffusion, and functional head MRI data and extracting useful patterns of the underlying pathology. The main goal is to investigate diffusion MRI data and state-of-the-art processing techniques in the context of Alzheimer’s disease but also in healthy aging and link its parameters to well-established diagnostic markers (CSF biomarkers, brain atrophy, psychological profile, etc). I am particularly interested in the role of the human cholinergic system (basal forebrain and its radiations) in Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive disorder, and subjective cognitive decline.

Dr. Nery is a psychiatrist. She is an employee of Eli Lilly and Company and works in neuroscience drug development. She received her MD degree from Hacettepe University Medical School and completed her psychiatry residency at Dokuz Eylul University Department of Psychiatry, in Turkey.

Manuela Neumann, M. D. is Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, Medical Director of the Department of Neuropathology of the University Hospital, and Senior Group Leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. Her research focus is to unravel the molecular pathology and underlying pathomechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases by studying human tissues and model systems. She is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the identification and characterization of TDP-43 and FET proteins in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and has received several prestigious research awards, including the European Grand Prix from the French Foundation for Research into Alzheimer‘s and the Alzheimer Research Award from the Hans&Ilse Breuer Foundation in 2012.