PROGRAM
The event was held at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15
Bradley Christian, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA
Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montreal, ON, Canada
Teresa Gomez-Isla, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16
- Early-career challenges (Moderator TBA)
- Publishing strategies (Moderated by Dr. Gil Rabinovici)
- Start with 'Why?': Identifying impactful research projects (Moderated by Dr. Suzanne Schindler)
- Funding opportunities (Moderated by Dr. Julie Price)
- Early-career challenges (Moderator TBA)
- Publishing strategies (Moderated by Dr. Gil Rabinovici)
- Start with 'Why?': Identifying impactful research projects (Moderated by Dr. Suzanne Schindler)
- Funding opportunities (Moderated by Dr. Julie Price)
Tobey Betthauser, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
Christina Moloney, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA
Reisa Sperling, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
David Wolk, Penn Memory Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17
- Transitioning from Academia to Industry: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies (Moderated by Dr. Laetitia Lemoine)
- Multidisciplinary collaborations (Moderated by Dr. Annie Cohen)
- Translating research to clinical practice (Moderated by Drs. Renaud La Joie and David Soleimani-Meigooni)
- Research Methods and Innovations: Designing robust studies, avoiding pitfalls, and staying ahead of imaging trends (Moderated by Dr. Reisa Sperling)
- Transitioning from Academia to Industry: Opportunities, Challenges, and Strategies (Moderated by Dr. Laetitia Lemoine)
- Multidisciplinary collaborations (Moderated by Dr. Annie Cohen)
- Translating research to clinical practice (Moderated by Drs. Renaud La Joie and David Soleimani-Meigooni)
- Research Methods and Innovations: Designing robust studies, avoiding pitfalls, and staying ahead of imaging trends (Moderated by Dr. Reisa Sperling)
Suzanne Schindler, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, MO, USA
Jasmeer Chhatwal, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Hyun-Sik Yang, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, US
2025 GUEST LECTURES
LEA TENENHOLZ GRINBERG, MD, PhD – UCSF
Dr. Lea Tenenholz Grinberg is a neuropathologist specializing in brain aging and associated disorders, most notably, Alzheimer’s and neurological basis of sleep disturbances in neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, she is a Full Professor and a John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Foundation Endowed Professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, part of the Executive Board of the Global Brain Health Institute and member of the Medical Scientific Advisory Group for the Alzheimer Association. She is also a Professor of Pathology at the University of Sao Paulo.
In 2003, Dr. Grinberg was among the founders of a brain bank in São Paulo, focusing on brain aging. This brain bank which she had since developed into an extremely prolific and highlyregarded institution, helped Dr. Grinberg prove that, contrary to what has been accepted previously, the brainstem and not the cortex, harbors the first detectable neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. In 2009, she was the recipient of the UNESCO-L’Oréal Award “For Women in Science,” and in 2010 she received the John Douglas French Alzheimer Foundation “Distinguished Research Scholar Award.” Currently, Dr. Grinberg is the Co-Leader of the UCSF/Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank, where she conducts neuropathological diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. She also directs the Human Biology Validation Core for the NIH/U54 Tau Centers Without Walls, is a principal investigator from the Tau Consortium and colead the Neuropathology Core for the LEADS project.
The Grinberg Lab
The Grinberg Lab at UCSF, which was established in 2009, is now home to almost 20 researchers, students and staff. The Grinberg Lab follows up on Dr. Grinberg’s initial discoveries to provide an integrated picture of brainstem vulnerability in AD and FTLD, including extensive studies on the neurobiological basis of sleep disturbances in these diseases aiming to provide personalized symptomatic treatment and improve the patient quality of life. The Grinberg Lab also investigates the factors influencing the clinical expression of Alzheimer’s pathology to lead to better diagnostic tools, the identification of risk factors for accelerated decline, and the therapeutic targets that minimize clinical decline in AD. The Lab combines classical quantitative neuropathological techniques with advanced computer vision tools and multiplex molecular probing in postmortem human tissue and neurons derived from induced pluripotent cells.
HARTMUTH KOLB, PhD – ENIGMA BIOMEDICAL GROUP
Dr. Hartmuth Kolb received his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1991 at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London. He joined Ciba-Geigy in 1993 and in 1997 became VP of Chemistry at Coelacanth Corporation to work with K. Barry Sharpless on pioneering Click Chemistry.
Dr. Kolb was the first author of the first publication on this topic (2022 Chemistry Nobel Prize for Sharpless, Meldal and Bertozzi). He then became head of Siemens Biomarker Research, where he and his team developed PET tracers using Click Chemistry. The PET tracer [18F]-T807 (aka “Flortaucipir”, “Tauvid”) is currently the only FDA-approved agent for imaging a distinctive characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease in the brain called tau pathology. After joining Janssen in January 2014, he worked on developing PET tracers for all therapeutic areas, and on precision medicine approaches in Neuroscience. His lab developed one of the first p217Tau blood tests for detecting the presence of Alzheimer’s pathology in patients.
In March 2024, he joined Enigma Biomedical Group (EBG) as their CSO to focus on the development of CNS imaging tracers. Dr. Kolb has served as co-chair of the Neuroscience Steering Committee of the Foundation of NIH Biomarkers consortium. He has over 100 peer reviewed scientific papers and over 40 patents.
In addition to this, Dr. Kolb has been the sharp-eyed, wisdom-wielding judge of our HAI Young Investigator Award for many years now, and we couldn’t be more thankful. His knack for spotting brilliance has become something of an HAI tradition!
SID O’BRYANT, PhD – UNTHSC
Dr. Sid O’Bryant is the principal investigator of the Health & Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD), which is the most comprehensive study of Alzheimer’s disease among the three largest racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. ever conducted – African Americans, Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites. The goal of the HABS-HD program is to understand the life course factors, including biological, sociocultural, environmental, and behavioral, that impact risk for Alzheimer’s disease in late life. This work will ultimately lead to population-specific precision medicine approaches to treating and preventing Alzheimer’s disease (i.e., “treating your Alzheimer’s disease”).
In addition to being a global leader in health disparities in cognitive aging, Dr. O’Bryant is a global expert in the use of blood-based biomarkers for the generation of a precision medicine approach to novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s disease among adults with Down Syndrome.