2018 NIH Alzheimer's Research Summit - Participant Biographies

MARIET ALLEN

Dr. Allen is Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic Florida. She received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of Leeds and a PhD in human genetics from the University of Edinburgh. Her research is primarily focused on the role of genetics and transcriptomics in AD and related dementias, with a particular interest in the use of quantitative endophenotypes. Dr. Allen co-leads the M2OVE-AD molecular profiling working group, and she is a contributing participant in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD) consortium.

AMIEE ALOI

Ms. Aloi is Director of Advocacy and Government Relations at bgC3, the private office of Bill Gates. In this capacity, she leads the policy and advocacy strategy for bgC3’s AD efforts. Previously, she was Deputy Vice President for International Advocacy at Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), where she advanced advocacy efforts on international trade and India. Prior to PhRMA, Ms. Aloi worked at Avalere Health, where she provided research and analysis on coverage, reimbursement, and policy issues facing biopharmaceutical companies. She has a master’s degree in Public Health from Yale University and a BS from Georgetown University.

LIANA G. APOSTOLOVA

Dr. Apostolova is the Barbara and Peer Baekgaard Professor of Alzheimer's Disease Research at Indiana University School of Medicine. She is a prolific researcher focused on the early symptomatic and presymptomatic stages of AD and on the development and validation of sensitive imaging and genetic biomarkers for AD and other dementing disorders. Dr. Apostolova is the Lead Principal Investigator of the recently funded Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (LEADS), which will study people with early-onset, sporadic AD and age-matched controls recruited at 14 sites across the United States.

ARDY ARIANPOUR

Mr. Arianpour is CEO and Co-Founder of Seqster, the first consumer-driven healthcare technology platform that uses artificial intelligence to enable individuals to aggregate their electronic health records, genomics, and fitness data in one place to share with their family, creating a multi-generational health record. Mr. Arianpour is a visionary genomics executive and serial entrepreneur in the biotech industry. Prior to starting Seqster, he launched several clinical and consumer-based genetic tests as Chief Clinical Officer of Pathway Genomics and Senior Vice President of Ambry Genetics, which sold to Konica for $1 billion in 2017. He is one of the main architects who launched the first commercial clinical exome sequencing test in 2011, establishing the value of next-generation sequencing in the clinic. As a key player in the 2013 landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision scrapping gene patents, Mr. Arianpour played an instrumental role in launching BRCA testing, benefiting patients and family members across the country. He received his BS in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and an MBA from the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management.

MATTHIAS ARNOLD

Dr. Arnold studied bioinformatics at two universities, Ludwig-Maximilians University and Technical University Munich. During his PhD studies at Helmholtz Center Munich (HMGU), he specialized in integrative functional annotation of human genetic variants across "omics" layers. In several genetic studies, he contributed to building the first large-scale mappings of genetic influences on the human metabolome and proteome. In 2016, he joined the AD Metabolomics Consortium (ADMC) within the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD) and M²OVE-AD initiatives. Currently, he is assembling a team for computational neurobiology at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at HMGU and supports the ADMC informatics team as adjunct assistant professor at Duke University.

GIORGIO A. ASCOLI

Dr. Ascoli received a PhD in biochemistry and neuroscience from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, and continued his research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, to investigate protein structure and binding in the nervous system. He moved to George Mason University in 1997, where he is University Professor in the Bioengineering Department and Neuroscience Program. He is also Director of the Center for Neural Informatics, Structures, and Plasticity and founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neuroinformatics. Dr. Ascoli fervently promotes data and knowledge sharing via NeuroMorpho.org, Hippocampome.org, and related initiatives.

RHODA AU

Dr. Au is Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Neurology, and Epidemiology at Boston University's Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Since 1990, she has conducted research related to cognitive aging and dementia for the Framingham Heart Study. Recently she integrated digital technology into the cognitive assessment process to identify digital biomarkers as surrogate indices for more expensive and invasive fluid and imaging biomarkers. In addition, she uses "big data" analytics to identify novel AD pathways and treatments. Dr. Au is also building multisector ecosystems to generate solutions that move the focus on precision medicine to one centered more broadly on precision health.

LAURA BAKER

Dr. Baker is Associate Director of the NIH-funded Alzheimer's Disease Center at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. She has conducted research for the past 15 years focused on lifestyle interventions to protect brain health and prevent cognitive decline in older adults at increased risk for dementia. She currently leads four large national clinical studies, three of which are randomized clinical trials involving lifestyle modification. Dr. Baker serves on the National Institute on Aging/Alzheimer's Association National Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Research Recruitment & Participation Taskforce; she leads efforts to develop strategies for recruitment and retention at the local level as part of this initiative.

KELLY M. BAKULSKI

Dr. Bakulski is Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. Her degree is in environmental health sciences, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in genetic and epigenetic epidemiology. Dr. Bakulski's research goal is to understand the etiologies of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's. She investigates the integration of environmental exposures and genetic risk on cognitive function in aging populations.

NIR BARZILAI

Dr. Barzilai is Director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging and the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in Biology of Aging. He is the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Aging Research, Professor of Medicine and Molecular Genetics, and a member of the Diabetes Research Center, Divisions of Endocrinology and Geriatrics. Dr. Barzilai's interests focus on several basic mechanisms in the biology of aging, including the biological effects of nutrients on extending life and the genetic determinants of lifespan. He has discovered several longevity genes in humans and, through support from a National Institutes of Health grant, is further characterizing the phenotype and genotype of humans with exceptional longevity. He has received grant support from the National Institute on Aging, American Federation for Aging Research, and the Ellison Medical Foundation.

NOAM BECKMANN

Dr. Beckmann is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Eric Schadt's laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also completed his PhD. His main focus is on using computational tools to model complex traits and diseases, with applications ranging from AD biology to the molecular effects of meditation and vacation. Previously, he worked in the genetics department of the CHUV (hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland), where he studied large CNVs. Earlier, he graduated with a master's degree in life sciences and technology from the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne and completed his master's thesis at the Salk Institute.

ROBERT BELL

Dr. Bell received a PhD in pathology, studying vascular dysfunction in AD under Dr. Berislav Zlokovic at the University of Rochester. He completed a postdoctorate in cardiovascular biology and held a Research Assistant Professor position in the University of Rochester Neurosurgery Department. He joined Pfizer's Neuroscience Research Unit in 2012 and created a lab focused on vascular targets in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier. In 2017, Dr. Bell joined the Rare Disease Research Unit. His group focuses on developing novel gene-therapy vectors and understanding molecular mechanisms that regulate AAV trafficking and biodistribution in the CNS and peripheral tissues.

SEAN C. BENDALL

Dr. Bendall is Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His research specialty is the development and application of single-cell proteomic tools for the investigation of human systems. This includes pioneering single-cell CyTOF mass cytometry and multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI). Dr. Bendall's work in mass cytometry analysis has provided an unparalleled granularity of understanding in multiple facets of human hematopoiesis and immunology. His lab continues to unravel the nature of both healthy and dysfunctional early human hematopoietic immune cell biology, as well as the phenotypic landscape of cognitive decline in the human brain using single-cell proteomic analysis. His work has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation "Breakthrough Scientist" Award, the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry President's Award of Excellence, and the NIH Common Fund "New Innovator" Award.

DAVID BENNETT

Dr. Bennett directs the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. He is Principal Investigator of the Religious Orders Study and the Rush Memory and Aging Project. His studies have enrolled thousands of older adults, all of whom are organ donors. He has linked a wide range of risk factors to the development of common diseases of aging. He has also generated a multilevel brain "omics" resource (genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) that feeds a computational pipeline for novel drug target discovery for several neurodegenerative diseases. He has more than 700 peer-reviewed publications.

ELIZABETH BRADSHAW

Dr. Bradshaw recently joined the Center for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology at Columbia University. A main focus of her work has been understanding the role of the human innate immune system in complex neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Interestingly, genetic studies of AD directly implicate the involvement of the innate immune system. In Parkinson's disease, the genetic modulation of the immune system is still being uncovered. One of Dr. Bradshaw's major research interests is the translation of findings from these studies to molecular outcomes and, potentially, therapeutically targetable molecules in innate immune cells.

ROBERTA DIAZ BRINTON

Dr. Brinton is Director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science at the University of Arizona, where she is Professor of Pharmacology and Neurology in the College of Medicine. Dr. Brinton is an internationally recognized leader in Alzheimer's discovery, translational, and clinical research for the development of therapeutics to prevent, delay, and treat AD. She has published more than 200 scientific articles and holds multiple patents. Outcomes of her research have appeared in more than 100 global media outlets. Dr. Brinton has received multiple awards, including the Presidential Citizens Medal, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation Scientist of the Year, and the National Institute on Aging MERIT Award.

KATJA BROSE

Dr. Brose is a Science Program Officer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), whose goals are to support basic science and technology that will make it possible to cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of the century. Before joining CZI, she was part of the editorial team at Cell Press, where she was Editor-in-Chief of Neuron and a Publishing Director at Cell Press-Elsevier. She earned her undergraduate degree in 1990 from Brown University, with a double concentration in biology and European history. She received her PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. Her graduate work focused on axon guidance mechanisms in the developing spinal cord in Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne's laboratory.

DANIELA BRUNNER

Dr. Brunner is Founder and President of Early Signal. She has worked on the validation of developmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disease models for the last 20 years. A major focus of her work has been the establishment and automatization of preclinical behavioral tests and novel high-throughput preclinical platforms, using computer vision and machine learning algorithms to comb behavioral signatures for phenotyping, drug screening, and systems biology approaches. As Senior Vice President of Behavioral R&D at PsychoGenics, she was in charge of large projects focused on back-translation of anti-smoking cessation medication, preclinical cognitive assessment, and studies in neurodegeneration, psychiatry, and autism. As head of Early Signal, Dr. Brunner directs the development of an analytical system that integrates human behavioral and "omics" readouts for health care and monitoring in rare disorders, connecting genomic information with behavioral domains, especially those passively captured with wearable sensors.

STUART BUCK

Dr. Buck is Vice President of Research at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, where he advises the Board and programmatic teams on the Foundation's overall research agenda as well as external research investments. He holds a PhD in education policy from the University of Arkansas, a JD with honors from Harvard Law School, and bachelor's and master's degrees in music performance from the University of Georgia. Dr. Buck serves on the boards of the Harvard Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center and the Houston Education Research Consortium, and he is a technical advisor to the Veterans Health Administration's Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center.

MARIA CARRILLO

Dr. Carrillo is Chief Science Officer, Medical and Scientific Relations, at the Alzheimer's Association. She has a wide range of responsibilities, including oversight of the Association's grant-making process and communication of scientific findings within and outside of the organization. Dr. Carrillo directly manages several Alzheimer's Association initiatives, including the Research Roundtable, the World-Wide Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, and the Global Alzheimer's Association Interactive Network. She is co-author of the National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer's Association revised criteria for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's and the Appropriate Use Criteria for Amyloid Imaging. Dr. Carrillo was the Alzheimer's Expert Scientific Consultant for the 2014 movie "Still Alice." In 2016, Dr. Carrillo joined the Governing Board of the Global Brain Health Institute, which supports a new generation of leaders to translate research evidence into effective policy and practice. In 2016, she also became a member of the Research Committee for the American Heart Association.

GREG CARTER

Dr. Carter is Associate Professor at The Jackson Laboratory, where he combines genetic, genomic, imaging, and other data resources to understand the causes and progression of AD. As a lead investigator for the Model Organism Development and Evaluation for Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (MODEL-AD) consortium, he is primarily focused on creating new animal models that develop neurodegenerative disease at advanced age. These models are being used to dissect the genetics, genomics, and neuropathology of late-onset Alzheimer's and to provide vital models for preclinical testing of candidate therapeutics.

GABRIELA CHIOSIS

Dr. Chiosis received her graduate training at Columbia University in New York and joined the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 1998, first as a fellow and, since 2005, as a faculty member. She has authored more than 130 scientific articles, holds more than 250 patents and patent applications on the discovery of compounds as therapeutic agents or diagnostics in human medicine, and serves as a reviewer for scientific magazines and on scientific panels. She is also a co-founder of Samus Therapeutics and serves on its Board of Managers. Novel compounds and diagnostics discovered by Dr. Chiosis's lab are currently in clinical evaluation for AD and cancer.

DAVID COLLIER

Dr. Collier joined Eli Lilly and Company in April 2012 as a Research Fellow and leader of the Neuroscience Genetics group in Erl Wood, UK. His role is to apply molecular genetics, bioinformatics, and network biology to neurodegeneration and pain disorders to discover and advance novel drug targets. He serves as the Eli Lilly representative on several public-private research consortia, including the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD), the Brainseq Consortium, and the IMI2 projects PHAGO (phagocytosis) and IMPRIND (protein misfolding). Dr. Collier is also a Visiting Professor at the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience. Before joining Eli Lilly, Dr. Collier was Professor of Neuropsychiatric Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, where he worked on the genetics of complex disorders using genome-wide association and copy number variants analysis.

MARCO COLONNA

Dr. Colonna is Professor of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine. Prior to that, he was a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland. His research accomplishments encompass identification and characterization of the Killer cell Ig-like receptors and HLA-C polymorphisms as their inhibitory ligands, as well as the discovery of the LILR and TREM inhibitory and activating receptor families. Through analysis of the cellular distribution of these receptors, he identified plasmacytoid dendritic cells as source of IFN-a/b in antiviral responses and innate lymphoid cells that produce IL-22 in mucosae. His current areas of research include lymphoid cells in mucosal immunity, plasmacytoid dendritic cells in host defense and autoimmunity, and innate immunoreceptors in AD.

CAROL A. COLTON

Dr. Colton is Professor in the Department of Neurology at Duke University. She has received the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation's Harrington Scholar award and the Alzheimer's Association Zenith award. Her work has been continually supported by NIH grants since 2000. Dr. Colton was among the first scientists to study microglia, the brain's immune cell, and has developed multiple mouse models that recapitulate immune responses similar to those found in humans with disease. Her recent work demonstrates complex immune changes in AD, connecting these changes to metabolic stress in the brain and opening new avenues of AD research.

MERYL COMER

Ms. Comer is President and CEO of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimer's Initiative, which promotes early diagnosis, virtual innovation challenges, and mobile health technologies. A co-founder of WomenAgainstAlzheimer's and the Global Alliance on Women's Brain Health, Ms. Comer is the recipient of the 2016 BrightFocus Public Advocacy Award, 2015 Lauder Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Fund "Great Ladies" Award, and 2014 Wertheim Global Medical Leadership Award. In 2012, she led the formation of the 21st Century BrainTrust® (21CBT), a nonprofit partnership to advance mobile technologies to promote brain health. She is also Co-Principal Investigator for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's Alzheimer's Patient/Caregiver Research Network in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, Brain Health Registry, and USAgainstAlzheimer's Networks. One hundred percent of proceeds from her New York Times bestseller book, Slow Dancing with a Stranger, supports Alzheimer's research.

ANA MARIA CUERVO

Dr. Cuervo is the Robert and Renee Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Professor in the Departments of Developmental and Molecular Biology and of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as Co-Director of the Einstein Institute for Aging Research. She obtained her MD and PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Valencia (Spain) and received postdoctoral training at Tufts University, Boston. In 2002, she started her laboratory at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where her group is interested in understanding how altered proteins can be eliminated from the cells through the lysosomal system (autophagy) and how malfunction of autophagy in aging is linked to age-related disorders, including neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases.

KEVIN DA SILVA

Dr. Da Silva has been the Chief Editor of Nature Neuroscience since 2016. He received his PhD in neuroscience in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, where he studied AD vaccines with JoAnne McLaurin. He continued his work on neurodegenerative disease as a postdoctoral fellow at Sunnybrook Research Institute, investigating neurogenesis and cholinergic neuron degeneration in AD. He joined Nature Medicine as a manuscript editor in 2009. He has handled manuscripts related to neuroscience, immunology, and stem cells.

HIROKO H. DODGE

Dr. Dodge is Professor of Neurology and has been simultaneously directing two NIH-funded Alzheimer's Disease Center Data Cores at Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Michigan. Her practical applications of complex statistical models to epidemiological data and digital biomarkers are recognized by the dementia research community. Along with her strong quantitative background, she has been the Principal Investigator for National Institute on Aging-funded behavioral intervention trials examining whether social interactions through modern technology (e.g., web cam and Internet) can enhance cognitive reserve. Her projects target socially isolated seniors, who rarely get involved in trials despite their high risk of cognitive decline.

RACHELLE DOODY

Dr. Doody is the Global Head of Neurodegeneration and AD Franchise Head in Product Development, Neuroscience, at Roche and Genentech. Prior to joining the company in 2016, Dr. Doody was the Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research at the Baylor College of Medicine, where she founded and directed the Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center for 27 years. Dr. Doody has published more than 200 original research articles dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of AD and related neurodegenerative disorders. She has served on the steering committees for the NIH-funded Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and on the executive committee of the Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute. Dr. Doody was the Principal Investigator for the Phase II and III development of donepezil (Aricept), the most widely used AD therapy globally. As a practicing neurologist, Dr. Doody was elected to Best Doctors in America from 1996 to 2016.

GAYATHRI J. DOWLING

Dr. Dowling is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development program, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. Dr. Dowling served as Deputy Director of the Office of Science Policy, Engagement, Education, and Communications at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and as Chief of Science Policy at NIDA. She has also served as a Program Director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and as a Scientific Review Administrator at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Dowling earned a PhD in neurobiology from the University of California at Davis, where she studied the developing nervous system and subsequently conducted research at the Parkinson's Institute. Along with publishing multiple scientific papers and a range of multimedia products, Dr. Dowling has earned numerous awards and widespread recognition for her work.

JOEL DUDLEY

Dr. Dudley is Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and Director of the Institute for Next-Generation Healthcare at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Prior to Mount Sinai, he held positions as Co-Founder and Director of Informatics at NuMedii, Inc. and Consulting Professor of Systems Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University. His work focuses on developing and applying methods to integrate the digital universe of information to build better predictive models of disease, drug response, digital health, and scientific wellness. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, CNBC, and other popular media outlets. Dr. Dudley received a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Arizona State University and master's and doctorate degrees in biomedical informatics from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

ALED EDWARDS

Dr. Edwards is Director of the Structural Genomics Consortium, an international, open science, public-private partnership that focuses on creating knowledge and reagents for human proteins that are relatively understudied. These reagents include highly characterized chemical inhibitors, protein structures, and recombinant antibodies. Dr. Edwards is on the faculty at the University of Toronto, as well as at Oxford University and McGill University. His interests are in open science, open drug discovery, and science reproducibility.

NILÜFER ERTEKIN-TANER

Dr. Ertekin-Taner is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic Florida. She received her medical degree from Hacettepe University in Turkey and her doctorate degree from the Mayo Graduate School. She completed her neurology residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and a behavioral neurology fellowship at Mayo Clinic Florida. Dr. Ertekin-Taner's laboratory aims to identify novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for Alzheimer's and related neurodegenerative diseases through an integrative approach combining biological, clinical, and large-scale multi-omics data. Dr. Ertekin-Taner is the Principal Investigator for numerous NIH and foundation grants and serves as Principal Investigator on the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD) and M2OVE-AD consortia.

DOROTHY FARRAR-EDWARDS

Dr. Farrar-Edwards is Professor of Medicine and Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She currently leads the Outreach, Recruitment, and Education and Minority Recruitment Cores of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. In addition, she directs the University of Wisconsin Collaborative Center for Health Equity. Her research focuses on increasing participation of under-represented groups in clinical trials and studies requesting biospecimens.

MARIANA G. FIGUEIRO

Dr. Figueiro is Director of the Lighting Research Center and Professor of Architecture and Biological Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, NY. Dr. Figueiro is well known for her research on the effects of light on human health, circadian photobiology, and lighting for older adults, including using light to improve sleep, behavior, and mood in people with AD. She is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society and is the author of more than 80 scientific articles. Dr. Figueiro has brought attention to the significance of light and health as a topic of public interest through a recent TEDMED talk.

VALENTINA FOSSATI

Dr. Fossati is a Senior Investigator at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, an independent, nonprofit laboratory, where she focuses on advancing translational science models and preclinical studies of neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory disorders, utilizing human iPSC-derived brain cells. Dr. Fossati established highly reproducible protocols to generate oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, microglia, and neuronal cell types. She is developing human disease relevant culture systems to identify and target the key pathogenic mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration and/or demyelination in progressive multiple sclerosis, AD, and other disorders of the central nervous system.

CHRIS GAITERI

Dr. Gaiteri loves networks. He uses them to help answer biological and social questions, for instance, identifying biological processes behind major depression and AD and predicting collaboration and trust between humans. Recently he has examined meta-network interactions between molecular systems and brain connectivity to understand how they both impact AD. Dr. Gaiteri works at the Rush University Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.

MICHELA GALLAGHER

Dr. Gallagher's scientific work has focused on individual differences, including age-related memory impairment and conditions in the aging brain of individuals with preserved cognition. Her work in the past few years has focused on a clinical research program in older adults with a form of mild cognitive impairment that is transitional between normal aging and dementia caused by AD. She is leading a pivotal trial of a novel therapeutic approach in this prodromal phase of AD aimed at preventing or slowing progression to clinical dementia.

OPHER GILEADI

Dr. Gileadi obtained his bachelor's degree and PhD at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, where he focused on the transcription machinery in yeast. With his own group at the Weizmann Institute, he continued to investigate gene regulation in yeast. Since 2004, Dr. Gileadi has been at the Structural Genomics Consortium at the University of Oxford, supervising a pipeline of protein production and crystallization of novel human proteins. The group, which has specialized in the structural and chemical biology of DNA repair proteins, is expanding to include proteins involved in neurodegeneration and psychiatric disorders.

LAURA N. GITLIN

Dr. Gitlin, an applied research sociologist, is the Isabel Hampton Robb Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and founding director, Center for Innovative Care in Aging. Starting Feb. 1, 2018, she is Distinguished Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University. Dr. Gitlin is nationally and internationally recognized for her programs of research that apply a social ecological perspective and person- and family-directed approach to address clinical symptoms of dementia, enhance quality of life, and support aging in place. Many of her proven programs are being implemented worldwide.

MARK GURNEY

Dr. Gurney is the Chairman and CEO of Tetra Discovery Partners, Inc. Tetra is developing BPN14770, a negative allosteric modulator of phosphodiesterase-4D, for the treatment of AD and other dementias, psychiatric disease, and neurodevelopmental disorders, including fragile X syndrome. BPN14770 uniquely targets the biology of the synapse to improve learning and memory, with the potential to slow AD progression. Dr. Gurney has authored 117 peer-reviewed scientific articles that have been cited more than 21,000 times and holds 36 issued patents. He earned a PhD in neuroscience from the California Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

MAGALI HAAS

Dr. Haas is Chair, CEO, and President of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a nonprofit brain research organization based in Cambridge, MA, whose mission is to fast-track diagnostics and therapeutics for brain disorders. Dr. Haas has more than 15 years of pharmaceutical executive experience, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), where she assumed broad, end-to-end development leadership roles in early- and late-stage clinical development, translational medicine, diagnostics, and integrative solutions. Her entrepreneurial spirit led her to spin out her own nonprofit from J&J in 2012, originally called Orion Bionetworks, while also serving as founding Chief Science and Technology Officer for One Mind for Research. Dr. Haas earned her bachelor's degree in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, master's degree in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, and MD and PhD in neuroscience with distinction from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

RACHEL HARDING

Rachel Harding completed her PhD at the University of Oxford and is now a postdoctoral fellow supervised by Cheryl Arrowsmith at the Structural Genomics Consortium, University of Toronto. Dr. Harding's research focuses on Huntington’s disease (HD), and she keeps a real-time open lab notebook for her HD lab project through the blog Lab Scribbles.

SCOTT HAYTON

Dr. Hayton is a Director of Special Projects with bgC3, the private office of Bill Gates. Prior to joining bgC3, Scott was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, where he advised neurology clients on product strategy, digital marketing, and big data. Scott earned his PhD in neuroscience from Queen's University in Canada and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine.

JACOB HOOKER

Dr. Hooker is the Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport MGH Research Scholar and Associate Neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is an Associate Professor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Radiochemistry at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. The mission of Dr. Hooker's lab is to accelerate the study of the living human brain and nervous system through the development and application of molecular imaging agents. The lab has developed and patented several imaging technologies for neuroscience, including a first-in-class radiotracer for neuroepigenetic imaging

CATHERINE KACZOROWSKI

Dr. Kaczorowski earned her PhD in neuroscience from Northwestern University and completed postdoctoral training in biotechnology and bioengineering at the Medical College of Wisconsin. In October 2017, she joined the faculty of The Jackson Laboratory, where her lab is using advanced research strategies that she developed with her team to identify the genetic, molecular, cellular, and neuronal network mechanisms underlying normal aging and resilience to AD. In addition to their utility in the discovery of novel drug targets, the approaches and tools they recently developed are enabling rapid, mouse-to-human translational validation on a scale that far surpasses what had been previously achievable.

RIMA KADDURAH-DAOUK

Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at the Duke University Medical Center and a member of the Duke Institute of Brain Sciences. She co-founded the Metabolomics Society as well as Metabolon, a leading biotechnology company that has played a central role in development and application of metabolomics in the medical field. With significant funding from NIH, she has established and led three national consortia with more than 150 scientists from 30-plus academic institutions: the Pharmacometabolomics Research Network, the Mood Disorder Precision Medicine Consortium, and the Alzheimer's Disease Metabolomics Consortium. Within these consortia, mathematicians, engineers, clinicians, geneticists, biochemists, and molecular biologists are working collaboratively to create a biochemical map for Alzheimer's that can enable discovery of new drugs. Dr. Kaddurah-Daouk is one of the principal investigators in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD) and M²OVE-AD open-science consortia.

JEFFREY KAYE

Dr. Kaye is the Layton Endowed Professor of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He directs the Layton Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Center and ORCATECH (Oregon Center for Aging and Technology) at OHSU. He leads several longitudinal studies, including: Intelligent Systems for Detection of Aging Changes (ISAAC), ORCATECH Life Laboratory, Ambient Independence Measures for Guiding Care Transitions, and the Collaborative Aging Research Using Technology (CART) Initiative, all using pervasive computing and sensing technologies for assessments and interventions. Dr. Kaye serves on many national and international panels and boards in the fields of geriatrics, neurology, and technology and is an author of more than 400 scientific publications.

CORINNA LATHAN

Dr. Lathan is CEO of AnthroTronix, Inc., a biomedical engineering company. She recently developed one of the first FDA-cleared digital health platforms, winning a prestigious Gold Edison Award. She also led the Health-eBrain Study of Alzheimer’s family caregivers. For this work, she was named a 2017 Woman to Watch by Disruptive Women in Health Care. Dr. Lathan is currently co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on the Future of Human Enhancement and is a thought leader on technology trends that impact health and health care. Dr. Lathan received a BA in biopsychology and mathematics from Swarthmore College and an MS in aeronautics and astronautics and PhD in neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

ALLAN LEVEY

Dr. Levey is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine and Director of Emory's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. He is a cognitive neurologist and neuroscientist with research interests spanning basic, translational, and clinical science for AD and related neurodegenerative diseases. He leads one of the programs in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD), focusing on proteomics discovery of novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers. Dr. Levey also serves on the federal Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services.

ANDREW LIM

Dr. Lim is Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Toronto and a neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. His research program focuses on understanding the contribution of disordered sleep and circadian biology to neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer's.

STUART LIPTON

Dr. Lipton, a neurologist and neuroscientist, is a renowned expert in dementia. In addition to running a basic-science laboratory as Co-Director of the Neuroscience Translational Center at the Scripps Research Institute, he has an active clinical neurology practice at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Lipton completed his PhD thesis research with John Dowling at Harvard University, followed by a clinical neurology residency with Norman Geschwind and postdoctoral fellowship with Torsten Wiesel. He was on the Harvard faculty for more than 20 years before moving to La Jolla, CA, in 2000. Dr. Lipton is best known for developing the FDA-approved Alzheimer's drug memantine (Namenda®) and for co-discovering the post-translational redox modification S-nitrosylation, the GluN3 NMDAR subunit family, and the neurogenic transcription factor MEF2C. Dr. Lipton's honors include the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an NIH Director's (DP1) Grant Award.

FRANK LONGO

Dr. Longo is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Stanford University. Following neurology training at the University of California, San Francisco, he and his team pioneered the development of small-molecule ligands that modulate neurodegenerative disease mechanisms. He is the founder of PharmatrophiX, a company focused on commercial development. Dr. Longo has had the unusual experience of advancing a program from basic mechanism discovery through preclinical trials, human phase I safety testing, and now into a phase IIa AD trial. He is the 2015 recipient of the Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Alzheimer's Drug Discovery from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation.

LARA MANGRAVITE

Dr. Mangravite is President of Sage Bionetworks, an organization focused on the development and implementation of practices for large-scale, collaborative biomedical research. Previously, she served as Director of the systems biology research group at Sage Bionetworks, focusing on the application of collaborative approaches to advance understanding of disease biology and treatment outcomes at a systems level, with the goal of improving clinical care. Dr. Mangravite obtained a bachelor's degree in physics from Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular pharmacogenomics at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

JENNIFER MANLY

Dr. Manly is Associate Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology at the Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University. Her research focuses on mechanisms of disparities in cognitive aging and AD. She received early career awards from the Society for Clinical Neuropsychology and the National Academy of Neuropsychology, received the Tony Wong Diversity Award for Outstanding Mentorship, and is an American Psychological Association Fellow. She served on the Alzheimer's Association Medical and Scientific Research Board and the federal Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services.

KATIE MASLOW

Ms. Maslow is a visiting scholar at the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Her work focuses on care-related issues for adults with cognitive impairment and dementia. She co-chaired the 2017 National Research Summit on Care, Services, and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers and was the team lead for the GSA toolkit KAER: A 4-Step Process to Detecting Cognitive Impairment and Earlier Diagnosis of Dementia. Before joining GSA in 2016, Ms. Maslow was a scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Medicine. She previously worked for the Alzheimer's Association and the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment.

KALPANA MERCHANT

Dr. Merchant has deep expertise in the neurobiology of chronic neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. From 1993 to 2014, she held scientific and strategic leadership and management roles in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. She retired from Eli Lilly and Company as Chief Scientific Officer for Tailored Therapeutics–Neuroscience. Since March 2014, Dr. Merchant has provided advisory and consulting services to nonprofit institutions and startup pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies. She serves on the Advisory Council for the National Center for Advancing Translational Services and the NIH Cures Acceleration Network Review Board. She is also an advisor to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and a member of the Wellcome Trust Review Board. Dr. Merchant received her PhD in neuropharmacology from the University of Utah in 1989 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington.

MARTHA CLARE MORRIS

Dr. Morris is Professor and Director of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging and the MIND Center for Brain Health at Rush University in Chicago. She received her doctoral degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She has more than 25 years of experience studying risk factors for AD and cognitive decline and has published findings on the relations of diet patterns and nutrients to these conditions. Dr. Morris is the lead creator of the MIND diet and is Principal Investigator of a multi-center randomized clinical trial of the MIND diet to prevent AD.

LENNART MUCKE

Dr. Mucke directs the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and is the Joseph B. Martin Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He uses experimental models of AD to identify pathogenic mechanisms and develop strategies to counteract neurological decline. He has received the Potamkin Prize, MetLife Foundation Award, Kalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award, Zenith Award, American Pacesetter Award, and MERIT award. He chairs the Senate of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and has served on the National Advisory Council on Aging of NIH and the Scientific and Medical Advisory Council of the Alzheimer's Association.

SUMITRA MURALIDHAR

Dr. Muralidhar is Program Director for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Million Veteran Program (MVP) in the Office of Research and Development (ORD). In this role, she oversees the development of policy and infrastructure for enrolling at least 1 million veterans in a longitudinal cohort collecting genetic, clinical, lifestyle, and military-exposure data for future research, as well as the policy for data use and conduct of science. She served as ORD's liaison to the White House Precision Medicine Initiative under President Obama and continues to represent ORD/MVP in the federal interagency group on precision medicine. Dr. Muralidhar also serves as the designated federal officer for the VA's Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee, which advises the VA Secretary on the development and implementation of research and clinical arms within the Veterans Health Administration.

CYNTHIA J. MUSANTE

Dr. Musante is a Research Fellow and Head of the Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) Lab in Pfizer's Internal Medicine Research Unit in Cambridge, MA. She received her PhD in applied mathematics from North Carolina State University and has more than 17 years of experience in QSP modeling. Dr. Musante currently serves as Co-Chair of the IQ Consortium Clinical Pharmacology QSP Working Group and as Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Pharmacometrics (ISoP). She was the inaugural Chair of ISoP's QSP Special Interest Group.

LARSSON OMBERG

Dr. Omberg is Vice President of Systems Biology at Sage Bionetworks and oversees a research agenda that focuses both on genomics and mobile health. The group focuses heavily on using open and team-based science to get a large number of external partners to collaborate on data-intensive problems. Dr. Omberg has a background in computational biology and has been developing computational methods for genomics analysis and disease modeling. He obtained a PhD in physics from the University of Texas at Austin and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in computational biology and biostatistics at Cornell University.

CHIRAG PATEL

Dr. Patel's long-term research goal is to address problems in human health and disease by developing computational and bioinformatics methods to reason over high-throughput information spanning molecules to populations. Dr. Patel's group focuses on computational strategies to efficiently and reproducibly uncover the complex interaction between the exposome, genome, and phenome toward development of new tools for disease diagnosis and therapy. He trained in biomedical informatics at Stanford University. Prior to graduate work, he was a software engineer in the biotechnology industry. Dr. Patel is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School, where he teaches introductory courses in data science, is a mentor to three postdoctoral associates, and advises three PhD students.

SUZANA PETANCESKA

Dr. Petanceska is a Senior Advisor for strategic development and partnerships and a Program Director for systems biology and systems pharmacology in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). During her tenure at NIA, she has overseen and developed a number of research portfolios and innovative programs in basic and translational research for AD. Her recent program development efforts have focused on developing systems biology and systems pharmacology capabilities for AD research and drug development within an open-science framework. Dr. Petanceska was instrumental in the development of NIA's AD Translational Research Program and leads NIA's open-science, systems biology programs for target and biomarker discovery: the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD) Target Discovery and Preclinical Validation Project and the M2OVE-AD and Resilience Consortia.

JESSICA POLKA

Dr. Polka is Director of ASAPbio, a biologist-driven project to promote transparency and innovation in life sciences communication. Before becoming a visiting scholar at the Whitehead Institute, she performed postdoctoral research in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, following a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Polka serves as President of the board of directors of Future of Research, a steering committee member of Rescuing Biomedical Research, a member of the NAS Next Generation Researchers Initiative, and a member of the American Society for Cell Biology's public policy committee.

NATHAN PRICE

Dr. Price is Professor and Associate Director of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, WA, where he co-leads the Hood-Price Lab for Systems Biomedicine. He is the recipient of the NIH Howard Temin Pathway to Independence Award, National Science Foundation CAREER award, Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust young investigator award, "Tomorrow's PIs" by Genome Technology, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and Grace A. Goldsmith Award. He serves on advisory boards for Roche (personalized medicine), Habit, Trelys, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Providence St. Joseph Health, Science Translational Medicine, and Cell Systems. He is Co-Founder and on the Board of Directors of Arivale.

BEN READHEAD

Dr. Readhead is an Australian-born medical practitioner who is passionate about innovation in the life sciences, with a focus on the application of bioinformatics to improve patient care. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Arizona State University–Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, where a key goal is to generate a comprehensive public atlas cataloging single-cell transcriptomic, genetic, proteomic, and epigenetic perturbations associated with AD across multiple regions and cell types within the brain. This resource will enable the construction of cell-specific networks that can be leveraged by the research community to identify novel molecular drivers of disease and to prioritize high-value therapeutic targets.

LORENZO REFOLO

Dr. Refolo is Director of Alzheimer 's Disease Drug Discovery and Development at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Prior to joining NIH, he was the Scientific Director at the Institute for the Study of Aging, where he created and managed a large portfolio of Alzheimer's drug discovery programs. In 2005, Dr. Refolo joined NIH as a Program Director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, overseeing a portfolio of basic, clinical, and translational research on AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. During his tenure at NIA, Dr. Refolo has developed a number of new translational programs focused on enabling predictive drug development for AD, including the MODEL-AD Consortium and AlzPED.

ERIC M. REIMAN

Dr. Reiman is Executive Director of the Banner Alzheimer's Institute, CEO of Banner Research, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona, University Professor of Neuroscience at Arizona State University, Clinical Director of Neurogenomics at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), and Director of the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium. He is an author of more than 300 publications, Principal Investigator of several NIH grants, leader of the Alzheimer's Prevention Initiative, and recipient of the Potamkin Prize for his contributions to the study of preclinical AD and the accelerated evaluation of Alzheimer's prevention therapies.

JONI L. RUTTER

Dr. Rutter is Director of Scientific Programs for the All of Us research program at NIH, leading the scientific development and implementation of a large national cohort to advance precision medicine research. Previously, Dr. Rutter was the Director of the Division of Neuroscience and Behavior at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She received her PhD from Dartmouth Medical School and trained at the National Cancer Institute. Her scientific interests include integrating genetic principles with environmental influences to inform more deeply our understanding of how individual and societal factors impact health and disease.

LAURIE RYAN

Dr. Ryan is Chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging (NIA). She oversees the development, coordination, and implementation of NIA's basic and clinical AD research program. Dr. Ryan also directs the AD clinical trials research portfolio and focuses on pharmacologic treatment and management of mild cognitive impairment, AD, and other dementias of aging to slow their course, to treat and manage their cognitive and behavioral manifestations, and, ultimately, to delay their onset and prevent them. Prior to joining NIH, Dr. Ryan served as Assistant Director for Research and Senior Neuropsychologist for the national Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, where she was responsible for overseeing clinical research development and implementation, with a focus on clinical trials.

ANDREW J. SAYKIN

Dr. Saykin is the Raymond C. Beeler Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences and Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine, where he serves as Director of the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center and the IU Center for Neuroimaging. Dr. Saykin leads the ADNI Genetics Core and participates in multiple AD consortia. His research focuses on the integration of multimodal brain imaging and multi-omics methods for early detection of AD and for identification of disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Brain Imaging and Behavior, a Springer-Nature journal.

ERIC SCHADT

Dr. Schadt is Dean for Precision Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and CEO of Sema4, a spinout, next-generation health information company of the Mount Sinai Health System that provides advanced genomic testing and merges big-data analytics with clinical diagnostics. He was previously the founding Director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His work combines supercomputing and advanced computational modeling with diverse biological data to understand the relationship between genes, gene products, other molecular features such as cells, organs, organisms, and communities and their impact on complex human traits such as disease.

GERARD SCHELLENBERG

Dr. Schellenberg is a leading expert on genetics and gene sequencing with specialties in neuropathology, immunobiology, and experimental pathology. His career has focused on applying advanced genome technology to the problem of finding the underlying causes of human diseases. He co-leads the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project and is Co-Director of the Genomics Center of Alzheimer's Disease at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schellenberg was instrumental in discovering genes for early-onset AD and identified the gene for Werner's Syndrome, a premature aging disorder. His current research focuses on the genetics of neurodegenerative disorders, with a major emphasis on AD, but he also works on different forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, as well as Guam amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/parkinsonism dementia complex. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer's Disease Research.

NICOLE SCHUPF

Dr. Schupf is Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Medical Center. She directs studies of aging and AD in adults with Down syndrome and shared genetic susceptibility to Down syndrome and AD in mothers of adults with Down syndrome. Dr. Schupf's recent work focuses on understanding the relationship between estrogen deficiency, apolipoprotein E genotype, and age at onset of AD in women with Down syndrome, and on examining blood-based preclinical proteomic biomarkers of age at onset and risk for the development of dementia.

NICK SEYFRIED

Dr. Seyfried's research focuses on the integration of proteomics, transcriptomics, and systems biology to tackle fundamental questions related to the pathogenesis of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders. His team utilizes high-resolution liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry to identify and quantify proteins and post-translational modifications in human brain, plasma, and cerebrospinal fluid. As part of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP AD) consortium, Dr. Seyfried and his team leverage the strengths of a national team of collaborating investigators to nominate new drug targets and biomarkers for AD.

MARINA SIROTA

Dr. Sirota is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Computational Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to that, she was the Lead Research Scientist in the Division of Systems Medicine at Stanford University. She has also worked as a Senior Research Scientist at Pfizer, where she focused on developing precision medicine strategies in drug discovery. Her research interests lie in developing computational integrative methods and applying these approaches in the context of disease diagnostics and therapeutics. Dr. Sirota's research experience in translational bioinformatics spans 10 years, during which she has co-authored nearly 40 scientific publications in a number of high-impact journals, including Nature Communications, JCI, PLoS Computational Biology, and Science Translational Medicine. Her laboratory is funded by NIH, Pfizer, March of Dimes, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

ALI TAUBES

Ms. Taubes is a fifth-year graduate student in the laboratory of Drs. Yadong Huang and Marina Sirota at the University of California, San Francisco and the Gladstone Institutes of Neurological Disease in the biomedical sciences program. She is working on applying computational drug repositioning techniques to the study of neurological disease, specifically apoE4-mediated AD. Prior to this project, Ms. Taubes worked extensively on characterizing mouse models of neurodegenerative disease, including frontotemporal lobar dementia and multiple sclerosis, as well as human clinical trials for the use of screening technology in different dementias. She is interested in the growing synergy between the fields of neuroscience and computational biology.

MARK TUSZYNSKI

Dr. Tuszynski is Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Founding Director of the UCSD Translational Neuroscience Institute. He received his undergraduate and MD degrees from the University of Minnesota, clinical training in neurology at Cornell University Medical Center, and a PhD in neuroscience at UCSD. Dr. Tuszynski's research focuses on central nervous system plasticity in animal models of learning, AD, spinal cord injury, and peripheral nerve injury. He investigates nervous system growth factors, stem cells, tools of gene delivery, and bioengineering approaches in many of these studies. In 2001, Dr. Tuszynski began the first human clinical trial of gene therapy to treat an adult human neurodegenerative disease, testing the effects of nerve growth factor gene delivery in patients with early AD. He has won 21 research awards and has authored more than 200 scientific and medical publications.

ROBERT TYCKO

Dr. Tycko is a Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at NIH. His research focuses on the development of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques and on their application to structural problems in biology and biophysics. Beginning in 2000, Dr. Tycko's lab developed the first experimentally based molecular structural models for amyloid fibrils formed by the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide. An important finding was that Aβ can form multiple distinct fibril structures, with potentially different biological effects, depending on details of fibril growth conditions. Recent work investigates Aß fibril structures that develop in the brain tissue of people with AD.

CORNELIA VAN DUIJN

Dr. van Duijn is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at the Erasmus University Medical Center and Professor of Translational Epidemiology at the University of Leiden. For more than 25 years, her work has focused on discovering genes involved in age-related disorders, including AD, glaucoma, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. She has been a leading figure in various international genome-wide association consortia, including the International Genetics of Alzheimer's Disease Project and the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). At present, she combines genomics research with high-throughput metabolomics in large-scale epidemiological biobanks and organ-on-chip models to translate findings to prevention and care.

LINDA J. VAN ELDIK

Dr. Van Eldik is Director of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and the National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Kentucky, Co-Director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute, and Professor of Neuroscience. Her research program, currently funded by NIA, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Alzheimer's Association, focuses on dysregulated neuroinflammation in central nervous system disorders. She earned her PhD in microbiology/immunology from Duke University and completed postdoctoral work in virology and cell biology at Rockefeller University. Dr. Van Eldik has also served on the faculty at Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University, where she was Co-Director of the Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology, and Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center.

STEVEN WAGNER

Dr. Wagner is Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. He spent 25 years in the biopharmaceutical industry and academia, studying translational neuroscience of AD. He led the team that discovered the first potent gamma-secretase modulators (GSMs) and for the first time purified to homogeneity the gamma-secretase enzyme complex ultimately responsible for generating amyloid β. He was awarded a Blueprint Neurotherapeutics U01 grant to optimize and develop GSMs for the treatment and/or prevention of AD. He is also a member of the Cure Alzheimer's Fund Research Consortium and the Scientific Advisory Board for the Alzheimer's Association's C4C.

DANIEL MARTIN WATTERSON

Dr. Watterson is the John G. Searle Professor at Northwestern University and Professor of Pharmacology in its Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on elucidation and molecular characterization of signal transduction pathways, the study of their role in pathophysiology, and the development of novel molecular probes to attenuate pathophysiology progression. Previous academic positions include Professor of Pharmacology and HHMI Investigator at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Associate Professor and Mellon Fellow at Rockefeller University.

RACHEL WHITMER

Dr. Whitmer is a Senior Scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, Director of the Population Based Research Program in Brain Aging, and Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. For more than 15 years, she has directed a research program investigating life-course population level risk and protective factors for AD, dementia, and cognitive impairment. Dr. Whitmer is Principal Investigator of: SOLID (Study of Longevity and Cognitive Aging in Diabetes), a cohort study of 1,100 older adults with diabetes; KHANDLE (Kaiser Healthy Aging and Diverse Life Experiences Study), a multiethnic study of dementia incidence in 1,800 elderly adults; Kaiser STAR (Study of Healthy Aging in African Americans), a cohort of 700 middle-aged and older African Americans; and Life After 90, a cohort of ethnic minority oldest-old individuals.

RICHARD WILDER

Mr. Wilder is Associate General Counsel in the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has cross-foundation leadership roles on emerging issues of open access, data, and science. His career has focused on the law and policy of intellectual property and trade, as well as global health and development in sectors spanning corporate, law firm, the United Nations, and the U.S. government. Mr. Wilder has taught law and speaks and writes often in the field of international and intellectual property law. Mr. Wilder is qualified in both engineering and law.

ALIZA P. WINGO

Dr. Wingo is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University and a psychiatrist at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Atlanta. She studies the genetic basis of depression and anxiety, resiliency, and psychological well-being. Additionally, Dr. Wingo investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying the detrimental effects of depression and the protective effects of psychological well-being on dementia risks. As an early-stage investigator, Dr. Wingo has received an American Psychiatric Association research fellowship award, a NARSAD Young Investigator award, and a VA Career Development Award. She recently received three federal grants to pursue these lines of inquiry and hopes to contribute to efforts in the prevention and early detection of dementia.

BENJAMIN WOLOZIN

Dr. Wolozin is Professor of Pharmacology, Neurology, and Neuroscience at the Boston University School of Medicine. His research investigates the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. The current work of the Wolozin lab addresses the roles of regulated protein aggregation, phase separation, and membrane-less organelles on proteostasis, RNA metabolism, neuronal function, and neurodegeneration. Investigating the biology of RNA granules (with a particular focus on stress granules), provides a theoretical framework for understanding the biology of neurodegenerative disease, as well as new directions for therapeutic intervention for tauopathies and other neurodegenerative diseases.

RONG XU

Dr. Xu is Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Xu earned her bachelor's degree in biology from Peking University, master's degree in computer science, and PhD in biomedical informatics from Stanford University. Dr. Xu is conducting cutting-edge research in the field of biomedical informatics. As evidence of her creativity and innovation, Dr. Xu recently received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2014), Landon-AACR Innovator Award for Cancer Prevention Research (2015), and American Medical Informatics Association New Investigator Award (2016).