Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common age-dependent neurodegenerative disease, affecting nearly 1 in 9 people over 65 in the world.  While a great progress in translational and discovery research is excitingly being made, there still lack effective therapies for AD and related neurodegenerative diseases.  This planned conference intends to bring together leading scientists and clinicians from all over the world to present their unpublished observations or findings to attendees, and to share their vision or prospects on translational or discovery research. We expect that some presenters, either by talks or posters, will discuss our current state of knowledge in disease mechanisms, novel targets, new genetic association or pathways, approaches for identifying new therapeutic targets, and biomarkers for diagnosis or treatment readouts. We will also invite speakers who are conducting later stages of drug discoveries to share clinical trial results. 

Confirmed Invited Speakers

David Bennett (Rush University)
Mathew Blurton-Jones (University of California, Irvine)
HARNESSING STEM CELL DERIVED MICROGLIA FOR BRAIN-WIDE DELIVERY OF THERAPEUTIC PROTEINS
Guojun Bu (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
PATHOBIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES AGAINST APOE IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Karen Duff (University College London)
TAUOPATHY MECHANISMS IN FTD AND AD
René Frank (University of Leeds)
Li Gan (Weill Cornell Medicine)
NEUROIMMUNE INTERACTIONS IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES
Christian Haass (Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich)
MODULATION OF TREM2 ACTIVITY BY AN AGONISTIC ANTIBODY
Michael Heneka (University of Luxembourg)
Joachim Herz (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
David Holtzman (Washington University in St. Louis)
ROLE OF APOE AND THE INNATE AND ADAPTIVE IMMUNE RESPONSE IN THE PRESENCE OF ALZHEIMER’S-LIKE PATHOLOGIES
Yadong Huang (Gladstone Institutes, University of California San Francisco)
NEURONAL APOE4 TOXICITY IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Celeste Karch (Washington University in St. Louis)
Jonathan Kipnis (Washington University in St. Louis)
IMMUNE CELL-BASED THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES FOR NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES
Yueming Li (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
Richard Mayeux (Columbia University)
THE PATHOGENIC ROLES OF APOE IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES
Inhee Mook-Jung (Seoul National University)
GUT-VAGUS NERVE-BRAIN AXIS IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE PATHOGENESIS
Priyanka Narayan (NIH)
Pannos Roussos (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
Michal Schwartz (Weizmann Institute of Science)
Sam Sisodia (University of Chicago)
Gopal Thinakaran (University of South Florida)
BIN1 RISK IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: UNPACKING THE COMPLEX MECHANISMS, ONE BIN AT A TIME
Taisuke Tomita (University of Tokyo)
TARGETING NEUROINFLAMMATORY RESPONSE FOR ACCELERATED AMYLOID CLEARANCE IN ALZHEIMER DISEASE
Robert Vassar (Northwestern University)
Matheus Victor (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
Michael Ward (NIH)
Tracy Young-Pearse (Harvard University)
Hui Zheng (Baylor College of Medicine)
GLIAL CELL-SURFACE PROTEINS IN AD

Key Sessions

•    The latest on AD genetics 
•    Peripheral and central immune response
•    Multiomic dissection of AD
•    Vulnerability and resilience
•    Lipid and metabolic abnormalities in AD pathogenesis
•    Novel therapeutic targets
•    New Biomarkers 
•    AI or machine learning-based drug discovery
•    Insights from molecular structures 
•    Brain imaging of AD brains

The significance of having this conference is to provide a unique forum for the research community focusing on translational studies geared towards therapies in AD and related neurodegenerative diseases to come together to discuss the latest advances and the future challenges in the field.  

Target Audience

The conference is essentially open to various levels of investigators including senior, mid career and early career investigators, either in academic or industrial or clinical institutes.  There will be ample opportunities for attendee to have close interactions networking and freely scientific discussions. We anticipate international representation from the US, Europe, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, and others.

Educational Need

Junior investigators such as graduate students or postdoctoral fellows as well as physician scientists are expected to gain knowledge on the most current therapeutic strategies in AD and the related field.  The conference will also be of interest to clinical practioners seeking updates on what developments are underway in the therapeutic pipeline for AD and the scientific basis of this research pathway.

Although the programme has not yet been released, we are able to confirm that the conference should begin no earlier than 13:00 with opening comments on 07 May 2025. The conference will conclude no later than 12:30 on 10 May 2025.