International Congress on Neurodegenerative Diseases

BT- CIEN - Centro Alzheimer Fundación Reina Sofía — Madrid, Spain

I completed my training as a neurologist at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (2000) and my PhD degree on Biopathology in Medicine at the University of Barcelona (2003). After my PhD, I obtained a Rio Hortega fellowship (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Health) in Behavioural neurology at the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi I Sunyer, Barcelona. During my fellowship, I accomplished a short-term postdoctoral scholarship at the Memory and Aging Center- University of California San Francisco, directed by Dr. Bruce Miller (2006). Back in Barcelona, I was hired as neurologist at the Alzheimer’s Disease and other Cognitive Disorders (ADCD) unit, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (2006-).

In 2018, I became the Group Leader of the Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders group at the IDIBAPS (https://www.clinicbarcelona.org/en/idibaps/research-areas/clinical-and-experimental-neuroscience/alzheimers-disease-and-other-cognitive-disorders) and Associate professor at the University of Barcelona. Currently, I am the Head of the Neurology Service at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. My research focuses on the use of different type of biomarkers (neuroimaging techniques, biochemical and genetic biomarkers) for the early and accurate diagnosis and prognosis/monitoring of neurodegenerative dementia, especially in early-onset and rare forms of dementia, as autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and prion diseases

BT- CIEN - Centro Alzheimer Fundación Reina Sofía — Madrid, Spain

Neuropathologist and basic neuroscientist, working since 2009 at the CIEN Foundation as Head of Neuropathology and Scientific Director of the CIEN Tissue Bank. Previously, extensive work as Head of Pathology and Research Director of a University Hospital in Madrid (Fundación Hospital Alcorcón), taking part during this period (1997-2009) and thereafter in the development of several brain banks in Spain. During the “mad cow” crisis (2000-2009) he was in charge of the neuropathological diagnosis of prion diseases in several regions of Spain, including Madrid, and was a member of several governmental committees dealing with prion disease surveillance and biosafety issues. Past member of several research ethical committees including the Ethical Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project (2014 – 2018) and of the Steering Committee of the Spanish National Biobank Network (2014 – 2020), and past President of the Spanish Neuropathology Club (2017 – 2021).

He has received several media and scientific awards for the promotion of brain donation and for research in Alzheimer’s disease (Spanish Society of Neurology Award, 2017). His research interests are focused on diagnostic and molecular neuropathology of neurodegenerative diseases, biospecimen science and biobanking, and ethical issues related to tissue donation for research. Since 2014 he is principal investigator of the core research program at the Alzheimer’s Center Queen Sofía Foundation (Vallecas Alzheimer’s Reina Sofía Study), in Madrid, based on a cohort of over 550 institutionalized patients with moderate to advanced dementia with periodic follow-up, biochemistry, MR and brain donation. In recent years, he took an active part in studies that lead to the discovery of brain fungal colonization in several neurodegenerative diseases and in breakthrough research in adult hippocampal neurogenesis. He organized the Ist and 2nd Symposia on Brain Banks in Spain (2018, 2023). He is author or co-author of 181 original scientific papers, h-index 59, and 7 book chapters.

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC, Madrid CIBERNED

PhD in Medicinal Chemistry (1983), he did his post-doctoral research in the USA (NIMH and Georgetown University) and France (IGBMC, Strasbourg) and was appointed as Staff Scientist at C.S.I.C. in 1986. EMBO Member since 2000, he was Director of the National Center for Biotechnology-C.S.I.C (2003-2007) and Deputy Vice President for Scientific Programming at C.S.I.C (2013-2014).

His research is focused on the early mechanisms of neuroprotection, in part controlled by the DREAM protein, which are common to different neurodegenerative diseases and that could be novel targets for therapy. He is serving as Receiving Editor for JBC and is a member of several International Advisory Committees and Reviewing Panels. He has published more than 100 pier-reviewed papers.

Leiden University

Academic biography

Arko is at the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University, The Netherlands, and holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from Trinity College, USA, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. His research program is to build innovative science to explain complex real world behavioral structures. His focus on the real world has a growing imprint – from capturing how we age to discovering fundamental patterns like multi-day behavioral rhythms. He also plays a foundational role in launching spin-offs that focus on solving real-world problems using the science and technology developed in the laboratory.

Research and career

BS, Trinity College (CT), USA

PhD, Swiss Federal Technological Institute (ETH Zurich), Switzerland

Post-doctoral researcher at University College London, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich

Spin-offs: QuantActions (co-founder), AXITE (scientific advisor)

Cluster of Excellence for Aging Research. University of Cologne

The main objective of Dr. Ramirez's laboratory is the identification of the genetic and epigenetic causes of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. His group has created the basis for research on the genetics and epigenetics of prodromal Alzheimer's disease and its progression through the creation of international collaborations. In this context, Dr. Ramirez has collected large genetic and epigenetic data sets in the context of international consortia dedicated to the genetics of neurodegeneration. He is an active member of the largest European consortium in Alzheimer's disease genetics, the "European DNA Bank for deciphering the missing heritability of Alzheimer's disease" (EADB consortium).

In 2016, he started the Neurogenetics and Molecular Psychiatry division in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cologne, expanding his research area to the molecular biology of aging as a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. His division has been specifically interested in cellular senescence as one of the fundamental processes occurring during aging. In this regard, Dr. Ramirez's team has explored whether the levels of specific proteins in cerebrospinal fluid belonging to the so-called senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) are associated with accelerated biological aging and whether this acceleration influences the progression to Alzheimer's type dementia.

Federación Española de Parkinson

Academic biography

Alicia Campos, director of the Spanish Parkinson's Federation (FEP) since 2016. She has a law degree from the King Juan Carlos University in Madrid and a degree in geography and history from the Autonoma University of Madrid.

During these years of management at the head of the FEP, she has promoted, among other projects, the Parkinson Observatory, a project for the scientific dissemination of parkinson and to connect the scientific community with de affected people.

The FEP represents people with Parkinson,s disease in Spain . Join more than 70 local Parkinson’s associations and member organizations.

MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Academic biography

Katabi received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Damascus in 1995, then an M.S in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications from MIT in 1998 and 2003, respectively. In 2003, Katabi joined MIT, where she holds the title of Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She is the co-director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing and a principal investigator at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Katabi was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2013. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Sciences in 2017, 2022, and 2023 respectively.

Research and career

Katabi's research focused on signals, machine learning and health. Her work started in networks (especially the congestion control challenge), where she found solutions for a better reliability of networks. Then, with her team, she used machine learning and signals to analyze the human body. Based on how RF signals bounce off our bodies, the researchers could measure human breathing, heart rates, emotion and sleep stages, without having the "patient" wear any sensor. Her most recent research combined medicine with AI, where she developed with her team a system capable of diagnosing Parkinson's Disease.

ACE Foundation

Dr. Agustín Ruiz is the current research director of ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona in Spain and has an accepted position as Director of the Glenn Biggs Institute Biological Core at the University of Texas Health San Antonio (Texas, United States). Born on August 10, 1969, in Utrera, Seville, Spain, he pursued an academic journey, obtaining a degree in Medicine and Surgery, and later a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Seville. During the early years of his career, Dr. Ruiz conducted research at the Department of Medical Genetics and Prenatal Diagnosis at the Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío in Seville from 1993 to 2001. His work during this period earned him the Extraordinary Doctoral Award at the University of Seville in 2000 for his Ph.D. thesis. A true entrepreneur, Dr. Ruiz co-promoted and co-founded several biotech companies. His endeavors in the field of biotechnology garnered recognition, including the Best 50K Business Idea and Best Business Plan awards from the Instituto Internacional San Telmo in Spain, and the 2008 Innovation Award for Business Excellence from the Government of Andalusia in Spain.

Throughout the past 28 years, Dr. Ruiz has made significant contributions to medical research and holds credit as a co-inventor of patents related to genetic testing, neurodegenerative biomarkers, and bioinformatics devices. His diverse expertise spans various domains, including clinical research, molecular genetics, high-performance computing, bioinformatics, and software development.

Dr. Ruiz's prolific academic career includes the publication of 252 articles and 180 preprints/abstracts in indexed journals such as JAMA, The American Journal of Human Genetics, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Nature series, and Genome Medicine, among others. With a strong commitment to advancing scientific knowledge, Dr. Ruiz has successfully secured funding for 39 projects from regional, national, and European competitive agencies. He is also actively engaged in contributing to scientific literature, having written chapters for scientific books and reviews in national magazines.

His expertise is widely recognized in the scientific community, evident through his roles as a reviewer for projects of the European Commission and his participation on scientific review panels for projects in several European countries and high-impact journals. Dr. Ruiz's primary scientific interest centers around the application of genomic technologies in medicine, and he has been instrumental in identifying numerous genetic factors associated with various rare and common diseases.

Fundación CIEN

He received clinical neurology training at the Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla (HUMV) and completed his specialization in behavioral neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in San Francisco, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Genetic Epidemiology from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He founded the Memory Unit at HUMV in 2009 and established the Valdecilla Biobank in 2006, both of which he directed until August 2021, when he joined Fundación CIEN as Scientific Director. Pascual Sánchez-Juan is a co-founder of the DEmentia GEnetic Spanish COnsortium (DEGESCO), which was established in 2012. In 2018, he initiated the Valdecilla Study for Memory and Brain Aging. He is currently the principal investigator (PI) and coordinator of the Precision Medicine Program-DEGESCO, the largest clinical study on dementia ever funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

Allen Institute for Brain Science

Ed Lein is a Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and an Affiliate Professor in the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (DLMP) at the University of Washington. He received a B.S. in biochemistry from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from UC Berkeley, and performed postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Ed joined the Allen Institute in 2004 and has provided scientific leadership for the creation of large-scale anatomical, cellular and gene expression atlases of the adult and developing mammalian brain as catalytic community resources, including the inaugural Allen Mouse Brain Atlas and a range of developmental and adult human and non-human primate brain atlases. Current research interests involve the use of single cell genomics as a core phenotype to understand brain cellular organization, mammalian conservation and human specificity, define cellular vulnerability in disease, and identify regulatory elements that allow cell type-specific targeting and manipulation.

He leads the Human Cell Types Department, which aims to create comprehensive cell atlases of the human and non-human primate brain, understand what is disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease, and create tools for precision genetic targeting of brain cell types as transformative tools for basic neuroscience and gene therapy. He is also a member of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN), a member of the Organizing Committee of the Human Cell Atlas (HCA), and a CIFAR fellow.

Ed’s areas of expertise include developmental neurobiology, structural and cellular neuroanatomy, transcriptomics and epigenomics, comparative neurobiology, and Alzheimer’s disease. His research program work encompasses brain cell atlasing, comparative neurobiology, Alzheimer’s disease, and gene therapy.

Unidad de Memoria, Hospital de Sant Pau

Dr. Alberto Lleó is director of the Memory Unit of the Neurology Service of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.

After graduating, in Medicine and Surgery, at the University of Barcelona in 1995, he completed a specialization in Neurology at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in 2000. Two years later, he obtained his doctorate in Medicine from the University of Barcelona. He continued his training with a basic research and clinical stay focused on memory and movement disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital (2002-2004), where he combined clinical assignments with research projects.

During his professional career, Dr. Alberto Lleó has combined healthcare work with translational research projects in the field of dementias, and specifically in its molecular aspects and in the development of biomarkers. His contributions include the discovery of new genetic alterations in Alzheimer's disease, the study of the functioning of the gamma-secretase complex, and the evaluation of new biochemical markers in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.

Today, Dr. Alberto Lleó directs a translational group, leads several projects financed by public and private agencies and maintains stable collaborations with numerous national and international groups. He is also coordinator of the Alzheimer program at CIBERNED (Center for Biomedical Research on the Net in neurodegenerative diseases). He is the author of a patent on synaptic markers, 20 book chapters and of more than 250 publications in international journals. He serves in the editorial board of Neurology and Brain Communications.

Lund University

Gemma Salvadó, PhD, is an associate researcher at Lund University, Sweden. She was awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship for her exceptional research contributions. Gemma earned her PhD at the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center, Spain, focusing on the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease using neuroimaging and fluid biomarkers. Her current research investigates plasma and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers to understand disease progression.

Gemma has authored 48 peer-reviewed articles, with 18 as the first author, published in high-impact journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Aging, Molecular Neurodegeneration, and EMBO Molecular Imaging. Her work has garnered significant recognition, reflected in a substantial increase in citations in recent years (1,558 citations on Scopus and 1,955 on Google Scholar, h-index = 23/24).

Professor of Neurology, Chief of the Division of Cognitive Neurology, Director of the National Institute of Aging funded Penn Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Co-Director of the Penn Institute on Aging, and Co-Director of the Penn Memory Center

Dr. Wolk’s primary clinical interest has been in the diagnosis and care of individuals with a variety of neurodegenerative conditions. His research has focused on the cognitive neuroscience of memory decline associated with aging and Alzheimer’s Disease using techniques including behavioral testing, structural and functional MRI, and FDG and molecular PET imaging. Much of this work is also directed at examining biomarkers, including behavioral and neuroimaging, that differentiate healthy aging from the earliest transition to AD and their potential role in understanding disease mechanisms and incorporation into treatment trials. Another related thread of his work has been to better understand, classify and predict sources of heterogeneity in AD. Dr. Wolk has had sustained NIH support since 2003 and has been the principal or co-investigator on numerous local, national and international studies, including therapeutic trials.

Dr. Wolk completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins University, a Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and clinical Fellowship training in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School; where he also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship studying memory in Alzheimer’s Disease. Amongst a number of honors, he is the recipient of the American Academy of Neurology’s Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral Neurology.

University Medical Center Gottingen

Tiago Outeiro graduated in Biochemistry at the University of Porto and was an Erasmus student at the University of Leeds in the UK. Tiago then did his PhD thesis at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical research – MIT and worked as a Research Scientist at FoldRx Pharmaceuticals as a Research Scientist and Consultant.

Tiago served as vice-President, President, and chairman of PAPS during his stay in the US.

Tiago was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Neurology of the Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard Medical School where he focused on the study of Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Tiago is Full Professor and the Director of the Department of Experimental Neurodegeneration at the University Medical Center Gottingen, in Germany. Since November 2017, Tiago is also Professor of Neurodegeneration at Newcastle University, UK.

Fundación CIEN

Dr. Grothe is an R3-certified senior research scientist who leads the Neuroimaging Unit at the CIEN Foundation, Reina Sofia Alzheimer Center, in Madrid. He obtained his PhD from Rostock University Medical School, Germany, and conducted post-doctoral work at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBIS), Spain. His research focuses on the use of multimodal neuroimaging techniques for studying neurodegenerative disease pathology in-vivo, and he has published over 150 peer-reviewed research articles in this field. With a current H-index of 51 he ranks among the top 3% of most highly cited researchers in Spain, and he has received several international research awards for his work, including the ‘AAIC de Leon Neuroimaging Award’ (Amsterdam, 2023). While most of his work has been focused on neuroimaging and biomarker research in Alzheimer’s disease, over the last years he has expanded his research to the in-vivo study of other common neurodegenerative pathologies of advanced age, including primary age-related tauopathy (PART), limbic age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), and Lewy body disorders.

Universidad de Lisboa

Joaquim Ferreira completed his medical degree and PhD in neurology at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is Professor of Neurology and Clinical Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon and Head of the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Portugal. He is also Group Leader at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (Lisbon) and head of the Neurorehabilitation Institute CNS-Campus Neurológico in Torres Vedras. He became interested in movement disorders during his medical degree and later undertook a clinical pharmacology fellowship with Professor Olivier Rascol in Toulouse, France. He has been Principal Investigator of multiple clinical trials in the field of Parkinson’s disease. His major research interests are neuropharmacology, Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders.

President of Parkinson’s Europe

Dr. Josefa Domingos is the president of Parkinson’s Europe, a physiotherapist specializing in Parkinson’s disease (PD) with two decades of experience working exclusively with people with PD. Since 2005, she has played a pivotal role in creating and developing specialized health services for people with Parkinson’s in Portugal, Sweden, and the US. Currently, Dr. Domingos serves as the National Health Coordinator at the Portuguese Parkinson Patient Association (APDPk) and co-founder of Young Parkies Portugal (YPP). She also contributes to the Davis Phinney Foundation’s scientific committee and is a member of the International Movement Disorder Society's Wellness Group. Dr. Domingos is an educator, clinician, and researcher; in 2023, she completed her PhD on the practicalities of implementing community-based exercise in Parkinson’s at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bas Bloem and Prof. Dr. Joaquim Ferreira. Her dedication to advancing Parkinson's research, advocacy, and support extends both nationally and internationally.

Amsterdam UMC

Henne Holstege majored in biochemistry at the University of Leiden. She spent a year at Harvard University in Boston, where she investigated the molecular mechanisms of satiety, and the influence of genetics on this. She went on to do her PhD at the Netherlands Cancer Institute where she studied the somatic genetic aberrations associated with the development of breast cancer. During her PhD, Dr. Henne Holstege was intrigued by how it is possible that some people manage to reach extreme ages in good health and without cognitive decline. To identify protective genetic and biomolecular factors that associate with the escape of cognitive decline, Holstege set up the 100-plus Study, a cohort study of cognitively healthy centenarians. Currently the cohort includes more than almost 500 centenarians from whom Holstege collects brain tissues, blood samples and faeces samples, in order to investigate genetics, neuropathology, neuropsychology, immunology associated with escaping cognitive decline.

While on one hand Holstege’s research focus lies on identifying protective molecular constellations that make the centenarians stand out, she realizes that this is tightly linked with the genetics of (early onset) Alzheimer’s Disease; both extremes on the same cognitive spectrum. Therefore, her lab is involved in large international collaborative joint analysis of sequencing data thousands of Alzheimer Disease cases and cognitively healthy controls the collected by European ADES and American ADSP consortia. Holstege and collaborators are currently identifying novel genes associated with the increased or decreased risk of AD. For more information see: www.holstegelab.eu

Panel de Expertos de Personas con Alzheimer (PEPA)

A Joaquina García del Moral (Kina) con tan solo 59 años le diagnosticaron Alzheimer. Kina es una de los 12 pacientes de Córdoba, 100 en España y 3.500 pacientes de todo el mundo que han participado en el ensayo clínico del nuevo y controvertido fármaco contra el Alzheimer: aducanumab. El medicamento, de la biotecnológica Biogen, fue autorizado por las Agencia del Medicamento estadounidense (FDA) y se espera que lo haga también la Agencia Europea del Medicamento (EMA).

Aducanumab, Aduhelm en su nombre comercial, busca frenar el deterioro cognitivo provocado por la enfermedad de Alzheimer y es un anticuerpo que reduce las placas de amiloide que se acumulan en estos pacientes y que se relacionan con este deterioro. Kina tiene mucho que decir. Ella lleva años inyectándose este medicamento.

Hace poco le confirmaron que lo que a ella le administraban no era placebo, era la medicación en dosis alta. Pero ella afirma que lo notaba, que su vida ha vuelto a ser como antes del diagnóstico y cree que eso solo podía ser por el aducanumab.

Fundación CIEN

After completing my formal university training in Physics, in 2012 I started a research career focused on the technical aspects of PET imaging. In 2017, I obtained my PhD (‘Cum Laude' distinction) in Medicine from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). During my PhD I developed SimPET, a novel tool for Monte Carlo simulation currently used by research groups around the world to test the robustness of neuroimaging biomarkers (https://github.com/txusser/simpet). To date, I continue leading the SimPET project as an active national multicenter consortium. As of the time of writing, 2 Ph.D. students are developing their thesis projects using SimPET.

Since the start of my career, I have also been active in the field of clinical and preclinical neuroimaging, as evidenced by my significant scientific publications in the field. These publications showcase my expertise in processing various imaging modalities, including PET, MRI, and SPECT. In 2015 I co-founded Qubiotech Health Intelligence SL (www.qubiotech.com), a startup commercializing neuroimaging quantification software. Serving as the company's CTO from 2017 to 2020, I led a team of 5 developers and successfully brought to market our most successful product, Neurocloud (www.neurocloud.es/en). Neurocloud, which incorporates automated pipelines for analyzing FDG and amyloid PET, MRI T1 and T2/FLAIR images (volumetry and white matter lesion detection), and dopaminergic SPECT, among others, is an approved medical device in the EU and is currently utilized by over 60 client hospitals in Europe. In 2020, I chose to further pursue my passion for research by joining the Molecular Imaging Group at the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS) as a postdoctoral researcher, where I led neuroimaging processing tasks in the NeuroAtlantic project (https://www.neuroatlantic.eu/). In January 2022, after being awarded the prestigious "Sara Borrell Fellowship" by the Spanish Ministry of Health, I initiated a promising research line at the Movement Disorders Group in the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBIS), examining the role of Lewy Body (co-)pathology in neurodegeneration patterns and clinical presentations in clinical Alzheimer’s Disease. As of January 2024, I have joined the CIEN Foundation, Reina Sofia Alzheimer Centre, in Madrid as a postdoctoral researcher.

Throughout recent years, I have published several studies on neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Lewy body disorders, primary age-related tauopathy (PART), and limbic age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE). I have authored 39 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals, with 10 articles as the first author and 6 as a corresponding or senior author, in some of the leading journals in the field, such as JAMA Neurology, Brain, Movement Disorders, and Alzheimer’s & Dementia. My current H-index is 18, with more than 800 citations. During my career, I have been honored with several awards for my outstanding trajectory in technology transfer, including the “Best Technology Transfer” by the Royal Galician Sciences Academy and the “Barrié de la Maza Award” by the Royal Galician Medicine Academy, among others. I have also supervised and mentored numerous trainees and doctoral students, contributing to the next generation of researchers in the field.

MD PhD is Professor of Neuropathology and Neurology at the University of Toronto

He is Consultant Neuropathologist and Neurologist at the University Health Network (UHN) and a Principal Investigator at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease. Dr. Kovacs is the Co-Director of the Rossy Program for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Research.

Dr. Kovacs completed his medical training at the Semmelweis University (Budapest, Hungary) where he specialized in Neurology and Neuropathology and obtained a PhD in Neuroscience. From 2004 to 2007, he was the Head of the Department of Neuropathology at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Budapest, Hungary. From 2007 to 2019, he was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Neurology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He was the leader of the Hungarian (2004-2019) and Austrian (2011-2019) Reference Center for Human Prion Diseases. Dr. Kovacs has also trained at Indiana University (2007) and University of Pennsylvania (2016 and 2017) as a visiting professor/scholar.

His major research interest is the neuropathology of neurodegenerative diseases to identify early biomarkers and therapy targets. His achievements include first descriptions, characterization and pathogenic elucidation of several poorly recognized neurological diseases, including frontotemporal dementia with globular glial inclusions and ageing-related tau-astrogliopathy (ARTAG). He coordinated a study and described the sequential distribution of tau pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy, which allows staging of disease. In addition, Dr. Kovacs has made fundamental descriptions and advances in the pathogenic, genetic, neuropathologic and epidemiologic studies on human tau, alpha-synuclein and prion protein- diseases. He has published more than 380 peer-reviewed papers and edited three books on Neuropathology.

KU-Leuven

I am a postdoctoral researcher investigating neuropathology of dementia, at KU Leuven, Belgium. My main research focus is TDP-43 pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease, LATE and frontotemporal dementia, using human post-mortem brain tissue and combining histology, multiomics and biophysics. I am also interested in investigating pathological synergies between TDP-43 and different co-pathologies in the context of dementia and how they contribute to neurodegeneration. Ultimately, I aim to improve the neuropathological assessment of age-related pathologies, which may contribute to the development of disease-specific therapeutic strategies.

Consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Professor Cath Mummery is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. She is chair of the NIHR Dementia Translational Research Collaboration, building a national unified trials network for early phase clinical trials and working with the Mission to accelerate and enhance dementia translational research in novel treatments.

She is Head of Clinical Trials at the Dementia Research Centre at University College London, and Deputy Director for the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre. She has been chief investigator on over 20 early phase drug trials of potential disease modifying agents in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and genetic forms of AD and frontotemporal dementia.

As clinical lead for the UCL Neurogenetic Therapies Programme, she leads a programme of innovative collaboration between industry and academia to accelerate progress in genetic therapies in dementia.

Her driving ambition is to ensure we not only have treatments that can alter the course of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, but that we can deliver them promptly, safely and equitably.

Assistant Professor, Anatomy and neurosciences - Amsterdam UMC

Specialization: MRI, pathology, neurodegeneration

My main research aim is to translate post mortem MRI signatures of neuropathology and neurodegeneration to the clinical setting, in order to facilitate a better interpretation of MRI datasets, and contribute to a better diagnosis, prognosis and patient stratification.

For this, we set up a standardized pipeline including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other dementia’s as well as non-neurological control donors, all undergoing the same 3T in-situ MRI and autopsy protocol with subsequent pathological assessment.

With this approach, my research line is threefold: studying the influence of pathological and neuronal markers on (i) cortical alterations, (ii) specific nuclei and their projections, and (ii) the integrating and segregating brain network.

University of Ferrara
Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS Rome, Italy

Professor Giacomo Koch trained in London at the University College of London. For more than ten years he has been involved in the acute treatment of stroke in the Stroke Unit of the Policlinico Tor Vergata in Rome.

He has directed the noninvasive brain stimulation laboratory at the Fondazione S. Lucia IRCCS in Rome since 2006. He has decades of experience in the field of clinical neurophysiology of the motor system and cognitive functions, with a translational approach to the study and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases, movement disorders and Alzheimer's disease.

He has held the position of Full Professor of Physiology at the University of Ferrara since 2020.

His main expertise is based on the application of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Transcranial Continuous Current Stimulation (TDCS). Used in conjunction with clinical neuroimaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), they allow the identification of the neuro-anatomical basis of neurophysiological modulations of cortical activity induced by noninvasive brain stimulation.

In that field, Professor Giacomo Koch has won numerous international awards, appearing among the top ten top experts in the world by number of publications. He is the author of about 330 international publications with an H-index of 70, is on the list of Top Italian Scientists (TIS), and is a Distinguished Professor in Neurology and Physiology.

The translational approach of his research is evidenced by the design and conduct of clinical trials for which he has been Principal Investigator (PI) in the field of cerebrovascular pathology and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease

MD, PhD
Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Pasqual Maragall Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

Servei de Neurologia, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain.

Marc Suárez-Calvet MD PhD is a clinical neurologist with expertise in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. He is the Group Leader of the Fluid Biomarkers and Translational Neurology Research Group at Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center and at the Neurology Department of Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain).

Recipient of the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, Dr. Suárez-Calvet directs his efforts towards the investigation of blood proteins associated with neurodegeneration and brain aging. His studies on blood biomarkers have been featured in journals such as Nature Medicine, JAMA Neurology, and Neurology.

After earning his medical degree at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2004), he completed his Neurology residency at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (2009), followed by a research fellowship at Harvard University. Between 2012 and 2017, he served as a researcher at Prof Christian Haass Lab at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität and the Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen in Munich, Germany. During this period, he led groundbreaking translational projects, uncovering the first post-translational modification specifically associated with FTLD-FUS, namely monomethylated arginine (MMA) FUS, and initiating a biomarker project centered on sTREM2, a microglial biomarker.

In 2017, Dr Suárez-Calvet held an honorary clinical assistant position at the Dementia Research Center in the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (UCLH), London, UK, under the guidance of Prof Nick Fox. He completed a fellowship at the University of Gothenburg under the mentorship of Prof. Blennow.

In 2018, he joined the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) and combines his research activity with a clinical appointment in Hospital del Mar. Recognizing his outstanding contributions, he was honored with the "Alzheimer Prize 2021" from the Spanish Society for Neurology.

Nova Medical School & Brain Aging and Dementia Study Group (GEECD)

Areas of Interest

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, mild cognitive impairment

Academic Background

• Degree in Medicine (2001, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon - FMUL).
• Specialty in Neurology (2009, Portuguese Medical Association)
• PhD in Medicine (2021, Nova Medical School)

Professional Career and Functions

• Graduate Assistant in Neurology at Hospital de Egas Moniz – Unidade Local de Saúde de Lisboa Ocidental.
• Coordinator of the Cognition Diseases Outpatient Clinic at Hospital de Egas Moniz-Unidade Local de Saúde de Lisboa Ocidental.
• Responsible for the Training of Neurology Residents at the Neurology Service of Hospital de Egas Moniz- Unidade Local de Saúde de Lisboa Ocidental.
• Assistant Lecturer in the Curricular Unit of Medical-Surgical Specialties I, Neurology Module, of the Integrated Master's Degree in Medicine at Nova Medical School.
• Researcher at Centro Clínico Académico de Lisboa (CCAL).
• President of the Brain Aging and Dementia Study GEECD - Group Grupo de Estudos de Envelhecimento Cerebral e Demência).

Scientific activity

• Participation in clinical trials in the field of dementia and mild cognitive impairment.
• Author of more than 15 articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.

Alzheimer Europe and Associação Alzheimer Portugal

Maria do Rosário has been practicing law in Portugal since 1987, with a focus on family law and the legal rights of people with diminished capacity. She is also a trainer on these same issues.

She is the Chairperson of Alzheimer Portugal.

On behalf of Alzheimer Portugal she is the General Meeting Chairperson of "Plataforma Saúde em Diálogo" , an umbrella organisation of 70 organisations, mostly of patients organisations of people living with chronic diseases.

She is a former member of CEIC - National Ethics Committee for Clinical Research. Maria do Rosário has been a member of the Alzheimer Europe Board since 2008, was the Honorary Treasurer from 2010-2020, after that started to serve as Chairperson.

Center for Transaltional research in Neurodegenerative disease. University of Florida

Malú Gámez Tansey, Ph.D. is the Norman and Susan Fixel Chair in Neuroscience and Neurology and former Director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida. Her lab focuses on the role of inflammation and immune system responses in brain health and neurodegenerative disease, with particular focus on central-peripheral neuroimmune crosstalk and the gut-brain axis, with the long-term goal of developing better therapies to prevent and/or delay these diseases.

Dr. Tansey obtained her B.S/M.S in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Cell Regulation from UT Southwestern followed by post-doctoral work in neuroscience at Washington University. As head of Chemical Genetics at Xencor, she co-invented novel soluble TNF inhibitors that have now advanced to clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease. She returned to academia as an Assistant Professor of Physiology at UT Southwestern in 2002 and was recruited to Emory University School of Medicine as a tenured Associate Professor in 2009. After 10 years at Emory and rising to the rank of Full Professor where she earned several mentoring awards from students and faculty for her efforts in championing early-stage investigators, women and other under-represented groups in STEM, she was recruited to the Department of Neuroscience in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, where she served on the executive committees for the McKnight Brain Institute and the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. She will be moving to the Stark Neuroscience Research Institute at Indiana University in Indianapolis in January of 2025 as the first Director of Neuroimmunology Research and Executive Associate Director of Education at the Stark.

DZNE. University of Bonn

Degrees

• 2011 Venia legendi, University of Göttingen
• 2011 Board certification Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
• 2003 MD thesis, University of Hamburg

Major previous appointments

• since 2016 Head, Dept. Neurodegenerative Diseases and Gerontopsychiatry, Univ Clinic Bonn
• since 2016 Group Leader, DZNE Bonn (W3, clinical dementia research)
• 2014-2016 Group Leader, DZNE Göttingen (W2, translational dementia research)
• 2011-2016 Deputy head, Clinical Dementia Center, University Medical Center Göttingen.
• 2012-2014 Heisenberg Fellowship (German Research Foundation), Guest Group, MPI Experimental Medicine, Göttingen

Activities in the Scientific Community / Professional Memberships

• Since 2017 Research Committee, Medical Faculty, University Bonn, Bonn
• Since 2017 Scientific Advisory Board, German PSP Society.
• 2015-2017 Associated member, European Neuroscience Institute, Göttingen
• Honors and Awards
• 2015 Research Award, German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
• 2012 Heisenberg Fellowship, German Research Foundation
• 2008 Steinberg Krupp Award for Alzheimer research

PhD Candidate, Exercise PRO-MS Study and Post-doctoral Researcher, HersenFIT Study

Organization:

• Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, MS Centrum Amsterdam
• Research Institutes: Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Amsterdam Neurosciences

Education Background:

• Bachelor's Degree: Physiotherapy

Master's Degree:

• Human Movement Sciences Specialization/Focus of research: Exercise Physiology, Neurodegeneration, Multiple Sclerosis.

CNS Portugal

Daniela Pimenta Silva graduated in Medicine at the University of Coimbra and completed her Neurology residency at Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, Hospital Santa Maria.

During residency, she developed a special interest in movement disorders and pursued a clinical fellowship at Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, France, where she had the opportunity to learn and practice with Professor Marie Vidailhet.

Currently, Daniela is a PhD student at the University of Lisbon. Her research is focused on the use of Virtual Reality in the non-pharmacological management of Parkinson’s disease, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Miguel Coelho and Prof. Dr. Joaquim Ferreira.

Institute of Neuropathology
UKE Research. Hamburg

Dr. Sepulveda-Falla studied medicine at the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, and obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He followed with a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Neuropathology of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in the same city, focusing on neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease.

In the same institution he became a research group leader, and he is currently the head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease in this center. Dr. Sepulveda-Falla started his interest in Alzheimer’s disease as a brain donation assistant, which motivated him to follow a career researching the pathobiology of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Sepulveda-Falla conducted the identification of the underlying cause of cerebellar symptoms in familial Alzheimer’s disease, spotting Ca2+ homeostasis in the mitochondria as a key factor in Purkinje Cells neurodegeneration. Following this clue, he developed cellular and animal models for the exploration of the role for gamma secretase in mitochondria. His group focuses on the characterization of disease heterogeneity in more than 100 brains donated by members of the PSEN1 E280A population, identifying the association between the degree of severity of tau pathology and age of disease onset.

His lab is currently using high throughput molecular, and machine learning-assisted neuropathological techniques to perform deep phenotyping of Alzheimer’s brains. Recently, Dr. Sepulveda-Falla described the neuropathological findings in two outstanding cases protected against the disease for more than three decades.

Presidenta de CEAFA

Mariló empezó su labor como voluntaria en el mundo Alzheimer cuando su madre fue diagnosticada de esta enfermedad en Motril. Ante la falta de recursos en esa ciudad, en el año 2010 fundó la Asociación Afacontigo Alzheimer de Motril. Desde entonces entró a formar parte en la Federación Granadina de Alzheimer, de la que es presidenta desde 2014. Actualmente también es Tesorera de la Confederación Andaluza de Alzheimer y Otras Demencias.

En el año 2016 entró a formar parte de la Junta de Gobierno de CEAFA como vocal, y ya en 2019 ocupó el cargo de vicepresidenta. Desde 2022 ocupa la presidencia de CEAFA.

Durante su mandato, la Junta de Gobierno tiene como meta continuar trabajando para poner el Alzheimer en la agenda política, buscando el necesario compromiso social para llevar a cabo acciones que ayuden a cambiar el estigma asociado a la enfermedad.

Neurólogo. Director Científico
Fundación CITA-Alzheimer Fundazioa
Donostia-San Sebastián

Degree in Medicine (1989), Specialist in Neurology (1992) and PhD in Medicine (1994) at the University of Navarra. I have devoted my whole professional life to clinical assistance, research and teaching in the field of cognitive impairment and dementia in various institutions such as the Virgen del Camino Hospital in Pamplona, the Landazabal Psychogeriatric Center in Burlada, the Memory Disorders Unit of the University Hospital of Navarra, Fundació ACE in Barcelona and now at the Center for Research and Advanced Therapies of the CITA-Alzheimer Foundation in San Sebastián.

Our research is focused on the pre-clinical and prodromal stages of Alzheimer's disease, biomarkers, neuroimaging and risk factors with a special interest in early detection and diagnosis, early treatment and primary/secondary prevention.