David Holtzman

Biography
David Holtzman is one of the defining figures in Alzheimer’s disease research. His work established key foundations of the disease biology that now underpin biomarker-driven detection and therapeutic development, including the role of apolipoprotein E in amyloid-beta metabolism and in tau-mediated neurodegeneration, the role of the innate and adaptive immune response in neurodegeneration, and the influence of the sleep-wake cycle on amyloid accumulation and tau-mediated injury. His laboratory helped drive the development and validation of cerebrospinal fluid and plasma biomarkers that detect Alzheimer’s pathology years before symptoms emerge, directly enabling the earlier, biology-based clinical trial strategies now shaping the field. His contributions to tau biology and neurodegeneration further clarified the sequence linking amyloid, tau, and neuronal loss. A member of the National Academy of Medicine and former President of the American Neurological Association, Holtzman has translated decades of mechanistic discovery into the scientific framework for Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment. His career helped define the scientific basis for precision neurology in neurodegenerative disease.

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Talk
Chair a session on Blood biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease
From Blood Test to Treatment - Are We Finally Diagnosing Alzheimer's Early Enough

Li-Huei Tsai

Biography
Professor Li-Huei Tsai is the Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a member of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She pioneered the use of non-invasive sensory stimulation to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders. Tsai is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a Member of the National Academy of Medicine, an Academician of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of the Mika Salpeter Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 Hans Wigzell Research Foundation Science Prize for her research on Alzheimer’s disease, and 2025 Distinguished Lecturer for Parkinson’s Disease Research, Helis Medical Research Foundations. In 2022 she was named a Visiting Professor of the Vallee Foundation.

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Talk
Sensory Gamma Stimulation in Neuroprotection/Treating Alzheimer’s
Gamma oscillations (30–80 Hz) support cognition and are disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease. We developed GENUS, delivering 40 Hz light and sound, which increases gamma power, reduces pathology, and improves cognition in mouse models. GENUS also alters glia and vasculature, enhancing glymphatic clearance via cholinergic and neuropeptide signaling underlying neuroprotection mechanisms.

David Holtzman

Biography
David Holtzman is one of the defining figures in Alzheimer’s disease research. His work established key foundations of the disease biology that now underpin biomarker-driven detection and therapeutic development, including the role of apolipoprotein E in amyloid-beta metabolism and in tau-mediated neurodegeneration, the role of the innate and adaptive immune response in neurodegeneration, and the influence of the sleep-wake cycle on amyloid accumulation and tau-mediated injury. His laboratory helped drive the development and validation of cerebrospinal fluid and plasma biomarkers that detect Alzheimer’s pathology years before symptoms emerge, directly enabling the earlier, biology-based clinical trial strategies now shaping the field. His contributions to tau biology and neurodegeneration further clarified the sequence linking amyloid, tau, and neuronal loss. A member of the National Academy of Medicine and former President of the American Neurological Association, Holtzman has translated decades of mechanistic discovery into the scientific framework for Alzheimer’s prevention and treatment. His career helped define the scientific basis for precision neurology in neurodegenerative disease.

AI and Data Sciences Showcase:
Onymos

Henrik Zetterberg

Biography
Henrik Zetterberg is a Professor of Neurochemistry in the UW Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin, the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and University College London, UK. He is also a Clinical Chemist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg, and leads the UK DRI Fluid Biomarker Laboratory at UCL. His main research focus and clinical interest are fluid biomarkers for brain diseases, neurodegenerative diseases in particular. He has published more than 2800 scientific articles and received many awards.

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Talk
25 years of research: Biofluid-based biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases
The talk covers recently developed CSF and blood biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's in particular, but important differential diagnoses and co-pathologies too.

David Liebeskind

Biography
David S. Liebeskind, MD, FAHA, FAAN is Professor of Neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he serves as the Associate Neurology Director of the UCLA Stroke Center and the Neurology Director of the Stroke Imaging Program. He is Co-Director of the UCLA Cerebral Blood Flow Laboratory and Director of the UCLA Vascular Neurology Residency Program.He trained in chemical engineering at Columbia University and completed his MD at New York University School of Medicine. Postgraduate medical training included internship at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston and neurology residency at UCLA. After his residency, he completed a fellowship in stroke and cerebrovascular disease at UCLA and subsequently joined the faculty in the Departments of Neurology and Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania.He has maintained extensive clinical activity across a broad range of cerebrovascular disorders ranging from carotid disease to unusual causes of stroke. Clinical expertise includes cerebral venous thrombosis, arterial dissection, moyamoya syndrome and other causes of stroke in the young. His principal research interests include novel neuroimaging approaches to elucidate fundamental pathophysiologic correlates of cerebrovascular disease in humans with a particular focus on the collateral circulation. His work on collateral perfusion in acute ischemic stroke draws on advances in noninvasive, multimodal CT and MRI and detailed analyses of digital subtraction angiography. He directs an angiography and imaging core laboratory that has participated in central readings of MERCI, Multi MERCI, IMS-III, TREVO EU and TREVO 2. His research on collaterals in intracranial atherosclerosis complements his work on acute stroke, utilizing computational fluid dynamic modeling and estimates of fractionalflow to predict risk of ischemia and reperfusion hemorrhage.

Henrik Zetterberg

Biography