Understanding the endosomal network in neurodegeneration

Jennifer Hirst studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology in London before moving to the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. For the last 20 years she has been interested in the discovery and understanding of various intracellular sorting machineries that are necessary to deliver biologically important proteins to their correct destinations. She is currently focused on a complex comprised (in part) of the protein products of SPG48, SPG11, SPG15 (spastic paraplegia genes), where patients with defects in any of these components present with progressive neuropathy affecting principally the lower limbs. She utilises simple model tissue culture cells to provide a mechanistic understanding of the interplay of these proteins and the pathways that they act on, with a view to a wider understanding of what goes wrong in these conditions.

Avital Rodal grew up in Ottawa, Canada. She attended MIT for her undergraduate studies in Biology and Chemical Engineering, and then University of California, Berkeley for her doctoral studies in Molecular and Cell Biology. She then did her postdoctoral work back at MIT, in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. She is currently an associate professor at Brandeis University, where she studies intracellular transport in neurons. She has been the recipient of NIH Pathway to Independence and NIH Director's New Innovator awards, a Pew scholar award, and recently the NINDS Landis Award for mentorship.

Lauren Jackson earned her bachelor of science (BS) degree in Chemistry (High Honors) with a Classical Studies minor at Vanderbilt University; she graduated summa cum laude as the College of Arts & Sciences Founders Medalist. She undertook PhD studies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. She worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (London) before completing postdoctoral training at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. Dr Jackson began her faculty appointment at Vanderbilt in 2014. Her work focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms that govern membrane trafficking pathways, especially how coat protein assembly and regulation drive fundamental cell biology and human disease. Dr Jackson’s research is supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and NIH (NIGMS & NCI). She reviews for multiple funding bodies (NIH MBPP; Wellcome Trust; Medical Research Council; DFG) and journals (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, eLife, Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, J Biological Chemistry, J Cell Biology, Structure, Traffic, Wellcome Open). Dr Jackson is active in undergraduate biochemistry teaching. She received the Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2019) and served as a Littlejohn Faculty Fellow in the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program. 

The Collins lab is interested in understanding how molecular interactions between proteins and lipids control intracellular membrane trafficking, using structural biology and biophysical approaches. Current interests include (i) endosomal trafficking by the Retromer complex and the sorting nexin protein family, (ii) the formation of plasma membrane structures called caveolae, and (ii) the mechanisms of synaptic vesicle fusion controlled by SNARE proteins. After training at Macquarie University in Sydney with Professor Bridget Mabbutt and a postdoctoral period at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research with Professor David Owen, Professor Collins returned to Australia in 2006 to take up an NHMRC RD Wright Career Development Award at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He currently holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship and is head of the Molecular Trafficking lab at the IMB. Career highlights include determining the structure of the heterotetrameric AP2 complex that regulates receptor endocytosis at the plasma membrane (Cell, 2002, 2010), providing key insights into the Retromer transport assembly (Nature, 2018), defining a novel family of sorting nexin proteins that regulate endosomal sorting (Nat. Cell Biol. 2019, Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol, 2016), and providing the molecular insights into the assembly of caveolar membrane coat structures (Dev. Cell 2014; EMBO Rep, 2018). 

Jennifer Hirst studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology in London before moving to the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. For the last 20 years she has been interested in the discovery and understanding of various intracellular sorting machineries that are necessary to deliver biologically important proteins to their correct destinations. She is currently focused on a complex comprised (in part) of the protein products of SPG48, SPG11, SPG15 (spastic paraplegia genes), where patients with defects in any of these components present with progressive neuropathy affecting principally the lower limbs. She utilises simple model tissue culture cells to provide a mechanistic understanding of the interplay of these proteins and the pathways that they act on, with a view to a wider understanding of what goes wrong in these conditions.

Lauren Jackson earned her bachelor of science (BS) degree in Chemistry (High Honors) with a Classical Studies minor at Vanderbilt University; she graduated summa cum laude as the College of Arts & Sciences Founders Medalist. She undertook PhD studies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. She worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (London) before completing postdoctoral training at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. Dr Jackson began her faculty appointment at Vanderbilt in 2014. Her work focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms that govern membrane trafficking pathways, especially how coat protein assembly and regulation drive fundamental cell biology and human disease. Dr Jackson’s research is supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and NIH (NIGMS & NCI). She reviews for multiple funding bodies (NIH MBPP; Wellcome Trust; Medical Research Council; DFG) and journals (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, eLife, Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, J Biological Chemistry, J Cell Biology, Structure, Traffic, Wellcome Open). Dr Jackson is active in undergraduate biochemistry teaching. She received the Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2019) and served as a Littlejohn Faculty Fellow in the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program. 

The Collins lab is interested in understanding how molecular interactions between proteins and lipids control intracellular membrane trafficking, using structural biology and biophysical approaches. Current interests include (i) endosomal trafficking by the Retromer complex and the sorting nexin protein family, (ii) the formation of plasma membrane structures called caveolae, and (ii) the mechanisms of synaptic vesicle fusion controlled by SNARE proteins. After training at Macquarie University in Sydney with Professor Bridget Mabbutt and a postdoctoral period at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research with Professor David Owen, Professor Collins returned to Australia in 2006 to take up an NHMRC RD Wright Career Development Award at the University of Queensland Institute for Molecular Bioscience. He currently holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship and is head of the Molecular Trafficking lab at the IMB. Career highlights include determining the structure of the heterotetrameric AP2 complex that regulates receptor endocytosis at the plasma membrane (Cell, 2002, 2010), providing key insights into the Retromer transport assembly (Nature, 2018), defining a novel family of sorting nexin proteins that regulate endosomal sorting (Nat. Cell Biol. 2019, Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol, 2016), and providing the molecular insights into the assembly of caveolar membrane coat structures (Dev. Cell 2014; EMBO Rep, 2018). 

Jennifer Hirst studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology in London before moving to the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. For the last 20 years she has been interested in the discovery and understanding of various intracellular sorting machineries that are necessary to deliver biologically important proteins to their correct destinations. She is currently focused on a complex comprised (in part) of the protein products of SPG48, SPG11, SPG15 (spastic paraplegia genes), where patients with defects in any of these components present with progressive neuropathy affecting principally the lower limbs. She utilises simple model tissue culture cells to provide a mechanistic understanding of the interplay of these proteins and the pathways that they act on, with a view to a wider understanding of what goes wrong in these conditions.

Lauren Jackson earned her bachelor of science (BS) degree in Chemistry (High Honors) with a Classical Studies minor at Vanderbilt University; she graduated summa cum laude as the College of Arts & Sciences Founders Medalist. She undertook PhD studies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. She worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group (London) before completing postdoctoral training at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. Dr Jackson began her faculty appointment at Vanderbilt in 2014. Her work focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms that govern membrane trafficking pathways, especially how coat protein assembly and regulation drive fundamental cell biology and human disease. Dr Jackson’s research is supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and NIH (NIGMS & NCI). She reviews for multiple funding bodies (NIH MBPP; Wellcome Trust; Medical Research Council; DFG) and journals (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, eLife, Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, J Biological Chemistry, J Cell Biology, Structure, Traffic, Wellcome Open). Dr Jackson is active in undergraduate biochemistry teaching. She received the Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2019) and served as a Littlejohn Faculty Fellow in the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program. 

Rick Livesey is Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the UCL/Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, based in the newly created Zayed Centre for Rare Disease in Children. Prior to joining UCL in 2018, he was a Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on development and disease of the human cerebral cortex, with a particular interest in the cell and molecular biology of neurodegenerative disease. Rick also leads the Wellcome Human Developmental Biology Initiative, a collaborative research program between 16 research groups in 8 institutions.

Bettina Winckler was trained as a cell biologist in Dr Frank Solomon's lab at MIT where she received a PhD in 1994. She subsequently trained as a postdoc with Dr Ira Mellman and Dr Mu-ming Poo. She started her own lab in 2000 at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and moved to the University of Virginia where she is Full Professor in the Department of Cell Biology. Dr Winckler has long-standing interests in how cells elaborate and maintain polarized morphologies, with a focus on neurons. Her work investigates the regulation of the endosomal pathway in dendrites in time and space. Currently, her lab is studying the transport of short-lived dendritic membrane proteins to somatic lysosomes and the regulation by Rab7 and its effectors. A second interest of the Winckler lab is the elucidation of novel signalling roles of intermediate filaments in neurons. 

Olav Andersen graduated from Aarhus University in 2001, followed by six years as postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Delbrück-Center for molecular medicine in Berlin. He returned to Aarhus University to become associate professor and establish his research group focusing on SORL1 and Alzheimer’s disease.  

Rick Livesey is Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the UCL/Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, based in the newly created Zayed Centre for Rare Disease in Children. Prior to joining UCL in 2018, he was a Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on development and disease of the human cerebral cortex, with a particular interest in the cell and molecular biology of neurodegenerative disease. Rick also leads the Wellcome Human Developmental Biology Initiative, a collaborative research program between 16 research groups in 8 institutions.

Bettina Winckler was trained as a cell biologist in Dr Frank Solomon's lab at MIT where she received a PhD in 1994. She subsequently trained as a postdoc with Dr Ira Mellman and Dr Mu-ming Poo. She started her own lab in 2000 at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and moved to the University of Virginia where she is Full Professor in the Department of Cell Biology. Dr Winckler has long-standing interests in how cells elaborate and maintain polarized morphologies, with a focus on neurons. Her work investigates the regulation of the endosomal pathway in dendrites in time and space. Currently, her lab is studying the transport of short-lived dendritic membrane proteins to somatic lysosomes and the regulation by Rab7 and its effectors. A second interest of the Winckler lab is the elucidation of novel signalling roles of intermediate filaments in neurons. 

Olav Andersen graduated from Aarhus University in 2001, followed by six years as postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Delbrück-Center for molecular medicine in Berlin. He returned to Aarhus University to become associate professor and establish his research group focusing on SORL1 and Alzheimer’s disease.  

Rick Livesey is Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the UCL/Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, based in the newly created Zayed Centre for Rare Disease in Children. Prior to joining UCL in 2018, he was a Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on development and disease of the human cerebral cortex, with a particular interest in the cell and molecular biology of neurodegenerative disease. Rick also leads the Wellcome Human Developmental Biology Initiative, a collaborative research program between 16 research groups in 8 institutions.

Bettina Winckler was trained as a cell biologist in Dr Frank Solomon's lab at MIT where she received a PhD in 1994. She subsequently trained as a postdoc with Dr Ira Mellman and Dr Mu-ming Poo. She started her own lab in 2000 at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and moved to the University of Virginia where she is Full Professor in the Department of Cell Biology. Dr Winckler has long-standing interests in how cells elaborate and maintain polarized morphologies, with a focus on neurons. Her work investigates the regulation of the endosomal pathway in dendrites in time and space. Currently, her lab is studying the transport of short-lived dendritic membrane proteins to somatic lysosomes and the regulation by Rab7 and its effectors. A second interest of the Winckler lab is the elucidation of novel signalling roles of intermediate filaments in neurons. 

Olav Andersen graduated from Aarhus University in 2001, followed by six years as postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Delbrück-Center for molecular medicine in Berlin. He returned to Aarhus University to become associate professor and establish his research group focusing on SORL1 and Alzheimer’s disease.  

Dario’s research focuses on unravelling the roles of poorly characterised components which regulate protein phosphorylation or ubiquitylation pathways that are linked to human disease. Dario obtained a BSc (1988) and PhD (1991) from the University of Birmingham, UK. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Dundee from 1991 to 1997, where he became fascinated by protein kinases and how they are regulated by insulin, growth factors and other extracellular signals that control almost all aspects of cell biology. In 1997 Dario became a program leader in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, where he was appointed as its Director in 2012. Much of Dario’s current work is focused on understanding LRRK2 and how mutations in this enzyme cause Parkinson’s disease. Dario’s work has contributed to approaches (LRRK2 kinase assay, LRRK2 Ser935 dephosphorylation assay, Rab phosphorylation assays) that have facilitated the development of inhibitors against LRRK2 that may be useful for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In collaboration with Matthias Mann, GSK, and the Michael J Fox Foundation, Dario’s lab contributed to the discovery and validation of the first physiological substrates for the Parkinson’s disease LRRK2 protein kinase to be identified showing that LRRK2 directly phosphorylates a subset of the Rab GTPases on a residue lying within the middle of the effector interacting-switch II domain. Dario, in collaboration with the Michael J Fox Foundation, is generating phospho-specific antibodies against these Rab proteins, that will enable better interrogation of LRRK2 activity and how it is impacted by mutations, environment and inhibitors that are being developed and assessed. Dario also serves as the Director of the Dundee Signal Transduction Therapy Unit. This is a unique collaboration between scientists at the University of Dundee and pharmaceutical companies including GSK, dedicated to accelerating the development of specific inhibitors and chemical probes that target the protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation system for the treatment of disease, as well as for the study of cell signalling. Dario has published around 260 papers and has a h-index of 126.

Dr Kerri Kinghorn is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellow at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dr Kinghorn's research group seeks to understand the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, as well as neuronal models of disease. In particular, her research group focuses on unravelling the underlying mechanisms linking genes involved in endosomal-lysosomal intracellular trafficking pathways and Parkinson’s disease. 

Dr Mark R Cookson is a cell biologist whose current research interests include the effects of mutations in the genes associated with neurodegeneration at the cellular and molecular level. His laboratory efforts are directed at finding the underlying pathways that lead to Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Dr Cookson received both his BSc and PhD degrees from the University of Salford, UK in 1991 and 1995, respectively. His postdoctoral studies included time spent at the Medical Research Council laboratories and at the University of Newcastle, UK. He joined the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, as an Assistant Professor in 2000 and moved to the NIA in February 2002. Within the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Dr Cookson's group works on the effects of mutations associated with Parkinson's disease on protein function.

Evan Reid graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University in 1991 then trained in Medical Genetics in Glasgow and Cambridge. He became interested in the hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs), which are genetic forms of motor neuron degeneration. He completed a PhD in Cambridge studying the genetics of these conditions, supervised by David Rubinsztein. After stints as a Wellcome Trust Advanced and then Senior Research Fellow, he is now Reader in Neurogenetics and Molecular Neurobiology and Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, a research institute of the University of Cambridge that has a strategic focus on unravelling the mechanisms of rare genetic disease. He is clinically active and runs a specialised neurogenetics clinic at Addenbrooke's Hospital. His research has encompassed the clinical features, genetics and cell biology of HSPs, but concentrates on understanding the molecular pathology of HSP proteins that are involved in membrane traffic. 

Erika Holzbaur is the William Maul Measey Professor of Physiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She received her BS in Chemistry and History from the College of William and Mary, her PhD in Biochemistry from Penn State, and performed her postdoctoral studies at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. Dr Holzbaur was recruited to Penn in 1992 and now holds an endowed chair. The Holzbaur lab studies the dynamics of organelle motility along the cellular cytoskeleton, required to drive the active transport of organelles along the axons and dendrites of neurons. The lab also investigates cellular mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration focusing on autophagy and mitophagy, pathways critical to maintain neuronal homeostasis. Dr Holzbaur was appointed a Porter Fellow and has received the NINDS Javits Award, the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award, and is an inaugural Lifetime Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology.  

Dario’s research focuses on unravelling the roles of poorly characterised components which regulate protein phosphorylation or ubiquitylation pathways that are linked to human disease. Dario obtained a BSc (1988) and PhD (1991) from the University of Birmingham, UK. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Dundee from 1991 to 1997, where he became fascinated by protein kinases and how they are regulated by insulin, growth factors and other extracellular signals that control almost all aspects of cell biology. In 1997 Dario became a program leader in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, where he was appointed as its Director in 2012. Much of Dario’s current work is focused on understanding LRRK2 and how mutations in this enzyme cause Parkinson’s disease. Dario’s work has contributed to approaches (LRRK2 kinase assay, LRRK2 Ser935 dephosphorylation assay, Rab phosphorylation assays) that have facilitated the development of inhibitors against LRRK2 that may be useful for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In collaboration with Matthias Mann, GSK, and the Michael J Fox Foundation, Dario’s lab contributed to the discovery and validation of the first physiological substrates for the Parkinson’s disease LRRK2 protein kinase to be identified showing that LRRK2 directly phosphorylates a subset of the Rab GTPases on a residue lying within the middle of the effector interacting-switch II domain. Dario, in collaboration with the Michael J Fox Foundation, is generating phospho-specific antibodies against these Rab proteins, that will enable better interrogation of LRRK2 activity and how it is impacted by mutations, environment and inhibitors that are being developed and assessed. Dario also serves as the Director of the Dundee Signal Transduction Therapy Unit. This is a unique collaboration between scientists at the University of Dundee and pharmaceutical companies including GSK, dedicated to accelerating the development of specific inhibitors and chemical probes that target the protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation system for the treatment of disease, as well as for the study of cell signalling. Dario has published around 260 papers and has a h-index of 126.

Dr Kerri Kinghorn is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellow at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dr Kinghorn's research group seeks to understand the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, as well as neuronal models of disease. In particular, her research group focuses on unravelling the underlying mechanisms linking genes involved in endosomal-lysosomal intracellular trafficking pathways and Parkinson’s disease. 

Evan Reid graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University in 1991 then trained in Medical Genetics in Glasgow and Cambridge. He became interested in the hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs), which are genetic forms of motor neuron degeneration. He completed a PhD in Cambridge studying the genetics of these conditions, supervised by David Rubinsztein. After stints as a Wellcome Trust Advanced and then Senior Research Fellow, he is now Reader in Neurogenetics and Molecular Neurobiology and Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, a research institute of the University of Cambridge that has a strategic focus on unravelling the mechanisms of rare genetic disease. He is clinically active and runs a specialised neurogenetics clinic at Addenbrooke's Hospital. His research has encompassed the clinical features, genetics and cell biology of HSPs, but concentrates on understanding the molecular pathology of HSP proteins that are involved in membrane traffic. 

Dario’s research focuses on unravelling the roles of poorly characterised components which regulate protein phosphorylation or ubiquitylation pathways that are linked to human disease. Dario obtained a BSc (1988) and PhD (1991) from the University of Birmingham, UK. He carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Dundee from 1991 to 1997, where he became fascinated by protein kinases and how they are regulated by insulin, growth factors and other extracellular signals that control almost all aspects of cell biology. In 1997 Dario became a program leader in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, where he was appointed as its Director in 2012. Much of Dario’s current work is focused on understanding LRRK2 and how mutations in this enzyme cause Parkinson’s disease. Dario’s work has contributed to approaches (LRRK2 kinase assay, LRRK2 Ser935 dephosphorylation assay, Rab phosphorylation assays) that have facilitated the development of inhibitors against LRRK2 that may be useful for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. In collaboration with Matthias Mann, GSK, and the Michael J Fox Foundation, Dario’s lab contributed to the discovery and validation of the first physiological substrates for the Parkinson’s disease LRRK2 protein kinase to be identified showing that LRRK2 directly phosphorylates a subset of the Rab GTPases on a residue lying within the middle of the effector interacting-switch II domain. Dario, in collaboration with the Michael J Fox Foundation, is generating phospho-specific antibodies against these Rab proteins, that will enable better interrogation of LRRK2 activity and how it is impacted by mutations, environment and inhibitors that are being developed and assessed. Dario also serves as the Director of the Dundee Signal Transduction Therapy Unit. This is a unique collaboration between scientists at the University of Dundee and pharmaceutical companies including GSK, dedicated to accelerating the development of specific inhibitors and chemical probes that target the protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation system for the treatment of disease, as well as for the study of cell signalling. Dario has published around 260 papers and has a h-index of 126.

Dr Kerri Kinghorn is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Career Development Fellow at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London and an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dr Kinghorn's research group seeks to understand the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, as well as neuronal models of disease. In particular, her research group focuses on unravelling the underlying mechanisms linking genes involved in endosomal-lysosomal intracellular trafficking pathways and Parkinson’s disease. 

Evan Reid graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University in 1991 then trained in Medical Genetics in Glasgow and Cambridge. He became interested in the hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs), which are genetic forms of motor neuron degeneration. He completed a PhD in Cambridge studying the genetics of these conditions, supervised by David Rubinsztein. After stints as a Wellcome Trust Advanced and then Senior Research Fellow, he is now Reader in Neurogenetics and Molecular Neurobiology and Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, a research institute of the University of Cambridge that has a strategic focus on unravelling the mechanisms of rare genetic disease. He is clinically active and runs a specialised neurogenetics clinic at Addenbrooke's Hospital. His research has encompassed the clinical features, genetics and cell biology of HSPs, but concentrates on understanding the molecular pathology of HSP proteins that are involved in membrane traffic. 

Peter St George-Hyslop FRS is a medical scientist, neurologist and molecular geneticist who is distinguished for his research into neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In particular, he discovered several genes that when mutated lead to early onset hereditary AD, accelerating our understanding the disease and the development of potential treatments.

His discovery that defective genes encoding presenilins are a cause of familial AD led to presenilins becoming a new target for treatments. He went on to show that mutated presenilins contribute to the generation of the amyloid beta protein — deposition of which is the earliest sign of AD in those carrying such genes. His work on several other neurodegeneration-related genes and proteins (including SORLA, TREM2, FUS and ANXA11) has led to an understanding of the role of vesicular transport, inflammation and perturbed RNA granule biology.

Peter has led an AD research programme as Professor of Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge since 2007. He was awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Scholar Award in both 1997 and 2002, and has received several other notable awards.

Justin K Ichida is an Associate Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Prior to joining USC, Dr Ichida earned his PhD at Harvard Medical School studying the origins of life with Jack Szostak and did postdoctoral work on cellular reprogramming with Kevin Eggan at Harvard University.

Dr Ichida conducts research on the etiology, pathogenesis, genetics, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. His work has garnered many awards, including a Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health, the New York Stem Cell Foundation Innovator Award, the Richard N. Merkin Scholar Award, and the Donald and Delia Baxter Foundation Faculty Scholar Award. In December 2017, Ichida received the Champion for a Cure Award from the ALS Association, the highest honor the ALS Association bestows on scientists for distinguished intellectual achievements. 

Since starting at USC in 2013, Dr Ichida has secured more than $15 million in external funding for research on ALS, frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other disorders of the nervous system. Ichida has published 68 scientific papers in the scientific literature and has co-founded a Los Angeles-based biotech company to translate findings from his lab to the clinic. 

Pierfausto Seneci received his degree in Chemistry in Pavia, followed by a postdoc at Politecnico (Milan). From 1986 he worked at Pierrel (Milan) on heterocyclic NSAIDs; at Marion Merrell Dow, on semisynthetic modification of natural antibacterials (Gerenzano), and on neuroprotective agents (Strasbourg); at Selectide (Tucson, USA) on combinatorial libraries of natural product-like structures; at SmithKlineBeecham (Rennes) as Lab Head of Chemistry, working in oncology and osteoporosis; and at GlaxoWellcome (Verona) as Director of Lead Discovery, leading the optimization of antibacterial and CNS agents. In 2000 he was a co-founder and CSO of NADAG (Munich), working on disease-modifying agents to cure AD.

In 2003 he became Associate Professor at the University of Milan, where he teaches basic and advanced courses. His medicinal chemistry interests are in oncology (pro-apoptotics, natural product derivatives, immuno-oncology) and in neurodegeneration (disease-modifyers against AD, PD and ALS). He authored more than 120 papers, 15 patents and 4 books.

Luca Muzio received his degree in Biology in Genoa. He is a senior scientist at the Institute of Experimental Neurology (INSpe) of San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy. He is a trained biologist that completed his PhD in 2005, working in the field of developmental biology. It is in that context that he investigated transcription factors and molecular mechanisms involved in cortical development. In 2006, he joined the INSpe and he has made research contributions in the field of neuroimmunology. He carried out different types of experiments and researches on animal models of multiple sclerosis (MS). More recently, he started to investigate neurodegeneration in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He did researches focused on microglia activation in ALS models and recently he started to investigate the retromer molecular pathway. Starting from 2015, he teaches at the University Vita Salute of Milan.