Huda Zoghbi, M.D. (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston)
Founder

Dr. Zoghbi is a professor in the departments of Human Genetics, Neurology, Neuroscience and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Zoghbi is one of the leading neurogeneticists in the world. Her work has been instrumental in advancing the molecular understanding of neurological diseases using genetic tools. Dr. Zoghbi is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine. 

Jeffrey Cummings, M.D. (UCLA) 

Dr. Cummings is the Augustus S. Rose Professor of Neurology and is also Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. Dr. Cummings is Founder and Director of the UCLA Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The Center has an active clinical trials program and fosters imaging, genetics, clinical and neuroscience research. Dr. Cummings is Director of the UCLA Behavioral Neuroscience and Dementia Research Fellowship. Many of the approximately 40 fellows that he has trained currently hold leadership positions in dementia programs throughout the United States and the world. He is the Founder and Director of the Deane F. Johnson Center for Neurotherapeutics at UCLA. Dr. Cummings’ interests embrace clinical trials and the development of new treatments for neurodegenerative disorders and other neurological diseases. He is past president of the Behavioral Neurology Society and of the American Neuropsychiatric Association and in 2005 was named Edward Henderson State-of-the-Art Lecturer by the American Geriatrics Society. Dr. Cummings has authored or edited 20 books and over 450 peer reviewed papers. He has broad interests in dementing disorders, neuropsychiatry, neurotherapeutics, and the interface of neuroscience and society

David Holtzman, M.D. (Washington University)

Dr. David Holtzman attended Northwestern University receiving his B.S. (1983) and M.D. (1985). He did medical internship and Neurology residency at UCSF (1985-89) followed by post-doctoral research training at UCSF from 1989-94. He moved to Washington University in 1994 where he is currently the Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology.  He is also the Associate director of the ADRC and on the steering committee of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders.  Past honors include being a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar Award in Aging Research, recipient of the 2003 Potamkin Prize for research on Alzheimer’s and related disorders, election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2004), receiving a MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging (2004), and being a 2006 recipient of the MetLife award for Alzheimer’s disease.

Bart de Strooper, M.D. Ph.D.(Leuven University, Leuven, Belgium)

Bart De Strooper, MD, PhD, is professor in molecular medicine and chairman of the department for human genetics at K.U.Leuven. He is also the scientific director of the VIB department of Molecular and Developmental Genetics where he operates the laboratory of neuronal cell biology and gene transfer. His group consists of about 30 researchers coming from over 15 different countries all over the world. Bart and his team investigate the fundamental mechanisms that cause Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson disease. Their work on the presenilin/gamma-secretase has led them into the area of regulated intramembrane proteolysis, a novel cell signaling pathway. Bart received his M.D. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1991 from K.U.Leuven, Belgium.  He did a postdoc in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in the laborartory of Carlos Dotti. Bart has won numerous prizes for his work on Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002 he received the Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and related Diseases and the Pioneer Award of the Alzheimer’s Association (USA). In 2003 he received the Alois Alzheimer Award of the Deutscher Gesellschaft für Gerontopsychiatrie und Psychotherapie. In 2005 he received the Vijfjaarlijkse Joseph Maisin Prize for biomedical research of the Flamish research organizaiton and in 2008 he received the MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research (USA).