1Department of Neurology, N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Research and Care, The University of Minnesota; Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. 2Geriatric Research Education & Clinical Center (GRECC), The Minneapolis VA Health Care System; Minneapolis, MN 55417, USA. 3Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York, NY 10029, USA. 4Research & Development, James J Peters VA Medical Center; Bronx, NY 10468, USA. 5Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York, NY 10029, USA. 6Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York, NY 10029, USA.

Dr. Silvia Paola Caminiti is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Pavia in Italy. With a background in neuroimaging and neuroscience, Dr. Caminiti is dedicated to advancing our understanding of the intricacies of the brain and its functioning. Dr. Caminiti's primary research focus revolves around aging and neurodegenerative diseases, using multimodal neuroimaging including positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Her investigations delve into the complexities of brain anatomy, function, and connectivity under both normal and pathological conditions. By employing advanced technical and computational methods, she passionately seeks to uncover the vulnerabilities of the brain, providing valuable insights into diverse clinical phenotypes. Dr. Caminiti is part of the steering committee of the Molecular Connectivity Working Group, where she is currently holding a prominent role as the Chair of the Symposium Council. This distinguished group comprises an international and interdisciplinary coalition of neuroimaging experts with backgrounds in biomedicine, health sciences, neuroscience, and physics, with the aim to establish Molecular imaging as tool to study brain Connectivity.

As a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center of CHU de Québec (Québec, QC, Canada), I am deeply invested in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. Holding a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from University of Montpellier (France), my research primarily focuses on developing new therapeutic strategies to tackle Alzheimer's. I'm particularly intrigued by the complex interaction between biological factors, such as stress and thermoregulation, in disease onset. I've shared my work in various scientific journals and at international conferences, always striving to combine scientific rigor with a deep sense of empathy and purpose.

Francesca Capotosti, PhD, is the Senior Group Leader at AC Immune, where she is responsible for leading preclinical development for the Company’s pipelines. She also serves as Global Project Leader for the alpha-synuclein (a-syn) PET program, which has delivered the first PET tracer capable of detecting a-syn pathology in a living human brain. Previously, she served as Research Scientist and then Team Leader, working primarily on small molecules targeting Tau as therapeutic and diagnostic agents. Before joining AC Immune in 2013, Dr Capotosti worked as postdoctoral fellow in the Bioengineer Department of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), focusing on new therapeutic approaches for immuno-oncology. Dr. Capotosti holds a PhD in life science from the University of Lausanne, work for which she obtained the Young Investigator Award, and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of Pisa, Italy.

I’m a cross centre post-doc in Paul Matthews’s and John Hardy’s groups at the UK Dementia Research Institute in London. My work focuses on the identification of the neuronal subpopulations most vulnerable in Alzheimer’s disease using Imaging Mass Cytometry. I obtained my BSc and MSc in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Turin (Italy), and my PhD in Developmental Neurobiology at University College London in Robin Lovell-Badge’s group at the Francis Crick Institute.