Martina Valletta is a Medical Doctor specialized in Neurology at Sapienza University of Rome. She is a PhD student at Karolinska Institute, working at the Aging Research center. Her main clinical and research interests are dementia and cognitive impairment and her PhD project focuses on blood biomarkers of dementia in a population setting. Besides this, she is also interested in risk and protective factors of cognitive decline and in the relationship between chronic diseases and dementia.

Dr Zoë Van Acker graduated summa cum laude as a ‘Master of Science in Biochemistry and Biotechnology’ at the University of Antwerp. She performed her PhD studies in the lab of Prof. Sylvia Dewilde. During this time, she worked on ‘neuroglobin’, a neuronal protein with cytoprotective traits under hypoxic conditions, SOD1-linked amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. Dr Van Acker joined the Annaert lab (VIB-KU Leuven) as a Postdoc in 2018 to elucidate the capacity and physiological relevance of lysosomes in degrading ssDNA/RNA and how this impacts neuronal proteostasis in the late-onset AD context (PMID: 37225734). To this end, her work focuses on the lysosomal exonuclease Phospholipase D3 (PLD3). In 2021, Dr Van Acker received the Dale Schenk award from the Alzheimer's Association Research Roundtable for her ongoing work.

Monica van den Berg is a postdoctoral researcher at the Bio-Imaging lab, at the University of Antwerp. Her research interest is on disentangling neuronal network function in health and disease, using indirect and direct readouts of neuronal activity combined with (chemogenetic) modulation of neuronal activity. In particular, she is interested how neuromodulatory systems such as the cholinergic system, modulate excitability of neurons and whole-brain networks and how this influences network function and behavior. She uses (resting state) functional MRI and in vivo electrophysiological recordings during behavioral paradigms, to evaluate network function at pre-plaque and early-plaque stages of Alzeheimer’s Disease, in the TgF344-AD rat model.

Professor Wiesje van der Flier is full professor and scientific director of the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands, where she has worked since 2004. She studied neuropsychology at the University of Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands. In addition, Professor van der Flier is a clinical epidemiologist. She leads the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort, an ongoing memory clinic-based cohort including more than 6000 patients with deep phenotyping (MRI, EEG, CSF biomarkers, and PET) and linked biobank (blood, DNA, CSF ). The Amsterdam Dementia Cohort is at the basis of many of the studies performed at the Alzheimer Center Amsterdam. She has been (co)promotor of >20 theses and is currently supervising ~10 PhD projects. Professor van der Flier’s main research areas are the origin of Alzheimer’s disease, its diagnosis and prognosis, and intervention and prevention. She leads ABOARD (A Personalized Medicine Approach for Alzheimer’s Disease), a Dutch public–private partnership of more than 30 partners. Together with colleague Philip Scheltens, she has written a book, Het Alzheimermysterie, which was published by the Arbeiderspers.

Christopher van Dyck is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neuroscience and Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit (ADRU) and Co-Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the Yale School of Medicine. He is an international leader in the neuroimaging and therapeutics of Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging and has authored 175 peer-reviewed publications. He serves as Co-Chair for the Project Evaluation Committee and a member of the Executive Committee for the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC), funded by the National Institute on Aging. He received the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry in 2023. Finally, Dr. van Dyck is extremely committed to advancing the cause of Alzheimer’s patients and their families and currently serves as a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Group (MSAG) of the Alzheimer’s Association. He has received the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Compassion and Cure” Award for 2005, the “Leader in Advancing Research” Award for 2017, and the “Progress” Award for 2023.

Tim has over 20 years of professional experience in academic and industry settings, and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer at BRAINBox Solutions in Richmond, Virginia, a company focused on developing novel diagnostic and prognostic testing technologies for brain injury and disease. BRAINBox Solutions is implementing multi-biomarker strategies and integrating complementary technologies for improving diagnostic and prognostic accuracy. In addition to his published scientific work, Tim has been an author of several issued and pending patents that are foundational for the commercial development of technologies for brain injury and neurodegeneration. Tim received his Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Vermont, his Master’s in Neuroscience and his PhD in Neuropathology from the Institute of Psychiatry and King’s College, University of London. His further post-doctoral training was performed in the Department of Neurosurgery at VCU School of Medicine where he held a faculty position in research and teaching, where he maintains affiliate faculty status. Tim was recently selected to co-lead the current ADRC working group on best practices for biofluid biomarkers.