Understanding the endosomal network in neurodegeneration

Professor Peter Cullen, University of Bristol, UK

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Biography not available

Professor Peter St George-Hyslop FRS, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, UK and University of Toronto, Canada

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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.

Professor Scott Small, Columbia University, USA

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Scott Small is the Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia University, where he is the Boris and Rose Katz Professor of Neurology. He is appointed in the Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Radiology.  

With an expertise in Alzheimer's disease and cognitive ageing, Dr Small's research focuses on the hippocampus, a circuit in the brain targeted by these and other disorders, notably schizophrenia. He has pioneered the development and application of high-resolution functional MRI techniques that can pinpoint parts of the hippocampus most affected by and resistant to ageing and disease. His lab then uses this anatomical information to try to identify causes of these disorders. Over the years, his lab has used this ‘anatomical biology’ approach to isolate pathogenic mechanisms related to Alzheimer's disease, cognitive ageing, and schizophrenia. More recently, his lab has used this insight to develop novel therapeutic interventions, some of which are currently being tested in patients.

Dr Henne Holstege, Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands

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Henne Holstege is an Assistant Professor at the Alzheimer Center and the Department of Clinical Genetics of the Amsterdam University Medical Center, the Netherlands. Holstege’s aim is to identify novel genetic factors underlying the escape or the increased risk of cognitive decline and specifically Alzheimer’s Disease. She has access to genetic and phenotypic data from Alzheimer Disease patients from the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort, collected by the Alzheimer Center. Second, to investigate the other extreme end of the cognitive spectrum, she set up the 100-plus Study cohort of cognitively healthy centenarians and almost 400 well-phenotyped centenarians are currently enrolled in the study. To identify AD-associated heritable factors, Holstege’s lab leads the largest genetic AD case-control study to date including 50,000 unique genomes, and novel AD-associated genes are currently being identified.