Kristiana Xhima is currently a third-year MD student and PhD graduate at the University of Toronto, working in Dr. Sandra Black’s lab at Sunnybrook Research Institute. Kristiana graduated from the University of Toronto with a BSc in Pathobiology and Neuroscience. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Toronto. Her research centers on understanding the vulnerability of the cholinergic system across neurodegenerative diseases, and developing novel treatment paradigms to promote repair and regeneration of the cholinergic system, including non-invasive targeted drug delivery to the brain using focused ultrasound.

Wei Xiang is an Associate Professor and biochemist affiliated with the Department of Molecular Neurology at the University Hospital, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her research is centered on the biology and pathology of alpha-synuclein, with a particular emphasis on the mechanisms underlying alpha-synuclein aggregation, including its posttranslational modifications. Additionally, her work explores the impact of gut dysfunction on the propagation of alpha-synuclein pathology from the gut to the brain. She is dedicated to identifying molecular and cellular effectors in the gut that contribute to the gut-to-brain spreading phenomenon.

Dr. Xiong is a faculty in the Division of Biostatistics, Washington University in St. Louis. His primary research interest is in aging and Alzheimer disease and related clinical trials design and analyses. He currently leads the Biostatistics Cores of Washington University Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC), the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), and the North American Prodromal Synucleinopathy (NAPS) Consortium, as well as a multi-center NIH-funded study to examine the racial differences in Alzheimer disease biomarkers from biofluid (cerebrospinal fluid and plasma) and imaging (amyloid and tau PET and MRI) and their implications in clinical trial design and analyses.

Dr. Hong Xu is an assistant professor and a nephrologist affiliated with the research group led by Professor Maria Eriksdotter at the Department of Neurobiology, Nursing Sciences, and Society, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Her research includes the exploration of links between inflammatory comorbidities, such as renal disease and dementia. Additionally, she concentrates on the treatment of dementia and renal disease, with a specific emphasis on the cholinergic system.

Dr. Xu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. He obtained his B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Beihang University in 2016. Then, he moved to the State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning at Beijing Normal University and started his study and research on brain connectome under the supervision of Prof. Yong He. In 2023, he completed his Ph.D. in Psychology at Beijing Normal University and joined Dr. Joana Pereira team in Karolinska Institutet as a postdoctoral researcher. His research at Karolinska focuses on the brain connectome in aging population and neurodegenerative disorders and its association with brain transcriptome.