People
The scientists, clinicians, and researchers who organize, review, and shape the Human Amyloid Imaging Conference.
Keith A. Johnson, MD, is Professor of Radiology and Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Radiologist and Director of Molecular Neuroimaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is co-director of the Neuroimaging Program of the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and its DIAN research initiatives, and oversees the Clinical Brain PET Service at MGH. His major research interests include normal brain aging and the early diagnosis and treatment monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and dementia with Lewy bodies.
As Chief Science Officer, Maria Carrillo sets the strategic vision for the Alzheimer's Association global research program. She oversees the AAIC, the world's largest dementia science meeting, and manages the World Wide ADNI initiative. Dr. Carrillo earned her doctorate from Northwestern University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rush University Medical Center.
Dr. Mormino completed her PhD in Neuroscience at UC Berkeley in the laboratory of Dr. William Jagust, where she performed some of the initial studies applying Amyloid PET to clinically normal older individuals. During her postdoctoral fellowship at MGH she used multimodal imaging to understand longitudinal cognitive changes in preclinical AD. Her research program at Stanford, where she currently serves as Associate Professor, focuses on combining imaging and genetics to predict cognitive trajectories over time.
Julie Price, PhD, is Investigator and Professor in the Department of Radiology at MGH and Director of PET Pharmacokinetic Modeling at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center. Her expertise is in PET imaging methodology for translational imaging of protein targets in aging and neurodegeneration. She is a 2021 Fellow of SNMMI and 2021 SNMMI Brain Imaging Council Kuhl-Lassen awardee.
Theme Co-Chairs gather after the review process to decide the final session structure and placement of accepted abstracts across the four core topics: Technical, Clinical, Neuropathology, and Biomarkers.
The Young Investigator Award Judges evaluate the top-scoring abstracts from early-career researchers who have elected to compete for the HAI Young Investigator Award.
"Amnestic dementia neuropathology: better never than LATE!"
Pete Nelson is a clinically active experimental neuropathologist. His PhD work was in Dr. Clifford Saper's lab, studying tau tangles in aged sheep brains. Pete later did residency, fellowship, and post-doc with training by the late Dr. John Trojanowski and Dr. Zissimos Mourelatos at the University of Pennsylvania.
Pete's work at the University of Kentucky has provided insights into the associative impact of pathology subtypes in the aged brain, and how genetics impact neurodegenerative pathologies. Pete uses digital pathology as a diagnostic aid and as a research tool for more rigorous and quantitative neuropathologic metrics of disease. In Pete's opinion, epidemiology constitutes a very important aspect of any disease that is relevant to clinical (live-person, and biomarkers) and pathological diagnostic workup.
A coauthor of over 300 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, Pete contributed to key papers on Alzheimer's disease, limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE), hippocampal sclerosis of aging, primary age-related tauopathy (PART), Lewy body diseases, age-related tau astrogliopathy (ARTAG), and brain arteriolosclerosis. Grappling with the complexity of these dementia-driving conditions may be helpful for generating, and/or improving, successful treatment strategies.
In terms of administrative titles, Pete is associate director of the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging; associate director of the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (leader of the Neuropathology Core); director of the Neuropathology division of the University of Kentucky Medical Center's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Management; and, RC Durr Endowed Chair of Alzheimer's Disease Research.
Rema Raman, PhD, is Professor of Neurology and Director of Biostatistics and Recruitment, Engagement, and Retention (RER) at the Epstein Family Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute at the University of Southern California. She leads the Biostatistics Unit and co-leads the RER Unit for the NIH-funded Alzheimer's Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC). An accomplished biostatistician and clinical trialist, Dr. Raman has provided scientific leadership in the design, conduct, and analysis of large, multisite neurology clinical trials. Her experience spans Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, acute stroke, traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her research interests include innovative and efficient trial designs, recruitment and retention science, centralized statistical monitoring, data visualization, and methods for longitudinal and missing data. She is also co-director of the NIA- and Alzheimer's Association-funded Institute of Methods and Protocols for Advancement of Clinical Trials in ADRD (IMPACT-AD), where she helps prepare the next generation of investigators to conduct rigorous and inclusive clinical trials.
"Beyond the Number: Why PET Methodology Matters for Amyloid Quantification?"
Mattia Veronese is Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Neuroimaging at King's College London. He holds a PhD in PET kinetic modelling, with research focused on the development and validation of molecular neuroimaging biomarkers for drug development and precision medicine. With over 15 years of experience and 200+ peer-reviewed publications analyzing high-dimensional brain imaging data and large observational cohorts, his work focuses on transforming complex information into robust and clinically meaningful indicators.