Meeting the challenges of modelling neurodegenerative disease in mice

Dr Dorothee Dormann studied Biochemistry in Tübingen, Germany and obtained a Ph.D. in Cell Biology/Immunology from the Rockefeller University, New York. In 2007, she joined the laboratory of Christian Haass at the LMU Munich as a postdoctoral fellow and started to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In 2014, she obtained the prestigious Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Award and an Emmy-Noether-Fellowship of the German Research Foundation to start her independent group at the BioMedical Center of the LMU Munich. Her current research focuses on intracellular transport pathways of ALS/FTD-linked RNA-protein complexes and the mechanisms that lead to the pathological redistribution and aggregation of RNA-binding proteins, including FUS and TDP-43.

Dr Duff is professor of Pathology and Cell Biology and deputy director of the Taub  institute at Columbia University Medical Center . After receiving her PhD from Sydney Brenner’s department at the University of Cambridge in 1991, she undertook postdoc positions in London with Alison Goate (1991-92) and John Hardy at the University of South Florida (1992-94). She joined the faculty at the University of South Florida then became an associate professor at Mayo Clinic in Florida. She joined the Nathan Kline Institute in New York in 1998, serving on the NYU faculty until joining Columbia in 2006. In her translational research program, Dr Duff has created several transgenic mouse models for Alzheimer’s disease to explore disease mechanisms and test therapeutic approaches.  Her current interests are in exploring the role of the risk factor ApoE4 in AD pathogenesis, exploring the mechanisms and circuitry involved in spread of disease within the brain, and identifying the role and therapeutic potential of autophagy and proteasome-mediated clearance to remove pathological proteins. Dr Duff has published more than 120 peer-reviewed research articles and received a number of prizes, including the Potemkin Prize in 2005.

Dr Gillian Bates is Professor of Molecular Neuroscience, co-Director of the Huntington’s Disease Centre and Vice Dean (Research), Faculty of Brain Sciences at UCL. During her postdoctoral work she was a key player in the team that, in 1993, cloned the Huntington’s disease gene. She developed the first mouse model of HD and her research programme is directed toward understanding the molecular basis of HD and validating therapeutic targets. She has been elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), European Molecular Biology Organisation (2002) and the Royal Society (2007). Prizes have included the Royal Society Glaxo Wellcome Award (with Stephen Davies) (1998), the Max Planck Research Award for International Cooperation (1999), the Klaus Joachim Zülch-Preis (2001) and the Leslie Brenner Gehry Prize for Innovation in Science (2011).

Professor Bannerman obtained a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Pharmacology at the University of Bristol (1989) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh (1995). He is Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford (2010). His research is concerned with the neurobiological substrates of learning and memory, emotion and attention. In particular, studying the role of glutamate receptors and the hippocampus in memory and anxiety.

Professor Good undertook his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Goldsmiths College University of London and then a D.Phil under the supervision of Prof Euan Macphail at the University of York where he investigated cognitive functions of the avian hippocampus. He then undertook a postdoctoral position with Professor Richard Morris at the University of Edinburgh and subsequently a lectureship in the School of Psychology Cardiff University.  Professor Good's research interests are concerned broadly with the neurobiology of learning and memory with a focus currently on using animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome to characterize cognitive, circuit and synaptic level activity in these disorders.

Elizabeth Fisher is Professor of Neurogenetics at University College London, in the Institute of Neurology, and focusses on genome engineering novel mouse models to understand neurodegenerative disease, specifically (1) aspects of human Down syndrome with respect to Alzheimer disease, and (2) forms of motor neuron degeneration largely related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She joined UCL in 2001 and prior to that ran a lab at Imperial College London from 1990 to 2001.  She was a postdoc at the Whitehead Institute at MIT (with David Page) from 1987 to 1990, having undertaken a PhD at Imperial College/MRC Harwell with Steve Brown and Mary Lyon. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford. EF was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2007. In 2009 she became a Member of EMBO, and in 2010 became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. She holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigators award jointly with Professor Victor Tybulewicz.

Eric H. Karran PhD is a molecular biochemist by training.  He is currently at AbbVie where he is Vice President, Distinguished Research Fellow and Site Head of the Foundational Neuroscience Center in Cambridge, Boston.  Previously Eric was the Director of Research for Alzheimer’s Research UK.   He has held senior positions in a number of companies, including SmithKline Beecham (now GSK), Pfizer, Eli Lilly and at Johnson and Johnson.  Eric has specialized in Neuroscience research, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, for the past 20 years.   Eric is a Visiting Professor in the Department for Human Genetics at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; a Visiting Professor in the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at the Institute of Neurology, University College London; and Visiting Professor of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom.

Dr Justice is a Senior Scientist and Head of the Program in Genetics and Genome Biology at The Hospital for Sick Children, and Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. A pioneer in mouse mutagenesis, Dr Justice’s research aims to improve human health through mouse genetics. Current work focuses on a genetic suppressor screen in a mouse model for Rett syndrome, which has unearthed new pathways for pathogenesis that suggest therapeutic entry points. She is Editor-in-Chief of Disease Models and Mechanisms, a Senior Editor of Current Protocols in Mouse Biology, a Fellow of the AAAS, and recipient of an American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Innovation Award in Functional Genomics, and the Michael E. DeBakey Excellence in Research Award.

Dr Ackerman received her PhD from UCLA and was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Illinois Medical School and the Wistar Institute. Prior to her move to UCSD in 2016, Dr Ackerman was a Professor at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, where she was a faculty member for nineteen years.  She has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2005. Dr. Ackerman is working to identify and analyse the genes, pathways, and networks involved in the maintenance of neuronal homeostasis and age-related death of neurons in the central nervous system.

Professor Bart De Strooper is the founding director of the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI). He is a researcher in Alzheimer's disease, and supervises laboratories based in the UK DRI at the Francis Crick Institute in London and in the VIB laboratory at the KU Leuven in Belgium. Bart De Strooper’s research is focused on translating genetic findings into mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and drug targets. He is best known for his work on the presenilins and gamma-secretase, and more recently for his work on the cellular theory of Alzheimer’s Disease.  He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship in 2020, and has received several awards including the Potamkin prize, the Metlife Foundation Award for Medical Research, Alois Alzheimer’s prize, the highly prestigious Brain Prize 2018 and Commander in the Order of Leopold I.;

Professor Giampietro Schiavo obtained his PhD from the University of Padua, Italy, and received postdoctoral training at the Department of Biomedical Studies, University of Padua, Italy, and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA, under the supervision of Professors Cesare Montecucco and James Rothman, respectively. He was then recruited as junior group leader at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (then Imperial Cancer Research Fund), where he led the Molecular NeuroPathobiology Laboratory until 2013. He then moved to the Institute of Neurology at University College London as a full Professor in 2014. The goal of Professor Schiavo’s research is to understand the mechanisms underlying axonal retrograde transport how neurons control the uptake and sorting of ligands in health and disease conditions.

Elizabeth Fisher is Professor of Neurogenetics at University College London, in the Institute of Neurology, and focusses on genome engineering novel mouse models to understand neurodegenerative disease, specifically (1) aspects of human Down syndrome with respect to Alzheimer disease, and (2) forms of motor neuron degeneration largely related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She joined UCL in 2001 and prior to that ran a lab at Imperial College London from 1990 to 2001.  She was a postdoc at the Whitehead Institute at MIT (with David Page) from 1987 to 1990, having undertaken a PhD at Imperial College/MRC Harwell with Steve Brown and Mary Lyon. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford. EF was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2007. In 2009 she became a Member of EMBO, and in 2010 became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. She holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigators award jointly with Professor Victor Tybulewicz.