Michael J. Fox is an iconic actor, best-selling author and advocate whose Hollywood career has been marked by worldwide acclaim, honor and awards. He launched The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in 2000 after publicly disclosing his 1991 diagnosis, at age 29, with Parkinson’s disease. Described by The New York Times as “the most credible voice on Parkinson’s disease research in the world,” the Foundation has funded more than $1.75 billion in Parkinson’s research programs to date. Michael has spoken and written extensively about his predisposition to look at challenges, including his Parkinson's disease, through a lens of optimism and humor. Michael’s autobiography, Lucky Man, became a New York Times number one bestseller. He wrote three subsequent best-selling books: Always Looking Up; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future; and No Time Like the Future. His many awards include five Emmys, four Golden Globes, one Grammy, two Screen Actors Guild awards and the People’s Choice award. In the fall of 2022, Michael J. Fox was presented with an honorary Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A documentary film about Fox’s remarkable life was released by Apple TV+ in the spring of 2023.

Clifford R. Jack Jr., M.D. is Professor of Radiology and the Alexander Family Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. His Aging and Dementia Imaging Research lab (ADIRL) is engaged in brain imaging research in cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. All modern brain imaging modalities are used including amyloid PET, FDG PET, tau PET, anatomic MRI, diffusion imaging, perfusion imaging, task free functional MRI, and quantitative susceptibility mapping. The group also serves as the MR center for large multi-site observational and interventional studies including ADNI, DIAN, the ACTC consortium (e.g. AHEAD 3-45, TRAC-DS, START),ABC-DS, ALLFTD, ARIC, COVID-BRAIN, DISCOVERY, Jackson Heart Study, LEADS, NAPS2, NLS-72, US Pointer, and SCAN.

Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, USA, Jackson did his PhD studies at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and postdoc studies at the Whitehead Institute/Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In both places, he generated allelic series of knock-in mice to study polyglutamine and prion diseases. In 2011 he started his own research group at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and moved to Linköping University in Sweden in 2018, where he continues to develop mouse models to study neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. William Jagust is a Professor of Public Health and Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Faculty Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was previously the Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Davis and founding director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Dr. Jagust’s career has been focused on understanding the aging brain, and particularly the borderland between normal cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease. His laboratory has pioneered in the use of multimodal imaging to understand brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease, employing positron emission tomography (PET) to measure -amyloid and tau proteins in the brain, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate how these protein aggregates affect neural function and structure. He has served on editorial boards of major journals, advisory boards to the National Institute on Aging, and to the pharmaceutical industry. His laboratory leads the PET component of numerous multicenter studies including the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, the POINTER imaging study, SCAN, and the HEAD project. He is a recipient of the 2013 Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases.

Joanna Jankowsky holds the Vivian L. Smith Endowed Chair in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Jankowsky's research focuses on understanding factors such as genes and aging that influence Alzheimer's risk, and testing experimental approaches for treatment including gene therapy. Her work uses genetically engineered mouse models for AD as a testbed for these studies and she is recognized for helping to create and characterize several transgenic models of AD. At her home institution, she teaches extensively and is the Associate Director graduate studies in neuroscience. She serves on the Alzheimer's Association International Research Grants Program Council and the BrightFocus Foundation Alzheimer's Disease Scientific Review Committee, and is the past chair of NIH CMND study section. She has received multiple awards for her research, including the NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, and the Alzheimer's Association Zenith Fellows Award.

Dr. Annette Janu iss a Neurologist and Neuroscience researcher with a background in Medical Technology, Electrophysiology and Biological Therapeutics. She has 20+ years of clinical research experience within the laboratory setting and academia, as well as within the biotechnology and pharma industry, providing leadership for 40+ international clinical trials. She has spent her career providing care to patients and helping advance medicine, particularity in the areas of neurological disease, rare indications, genetic disorders and autoimmune disease.