Keynote Speakers

Professor Sir John Hardy is the Chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at the UCL Institute of Neurology. He contributed to a critical breakthrough in understanding what happens in the brain with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Since then, he has led broader effort to understand the genetic factors behind other degenerative brain diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron disease.

John discovered that a mutation in the gene for amyloid precursor protein (APP) caused deposits of a substance called amyloid to form in brain tissue, associated with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Deposits of amyloid, which kills brain cells, later proved to be a primary cause of the disease.

Professor Hardy’s is now harnessing the power of whole-genome sequencing to reveal the more complex interactions between genes and the environment that increase the risk of neurodegenerative disease.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in the 2022 New Year’s honours. 

 One of the world’s leading authorities on neuroimaging, informatics, AI applications in neuroscience, mapping brain structure and function, and brain atlasing. Dr. Toga’s research focus is in neurodegenerative disease and specifically works on Alzheimer’s disease.  His interdisciplinary work led to the creation of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), which he also directs and is one of the most advanced multidisciplinary neurological research centers in the world serving numerous multisite neuroscience projects globally. Funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants as well as industry partners, LONI houses one of the largest computing facilities and largest brain image repository in the world.

 He is an author or co-author of more than 950 peer-reviewed papers, 1200 abstracts and 80 book chapters or books, among them, the Brain Mapping Trilogy.  He is the founding editor of the journal NeuroImage.  Dr. Toga has received numerous awards for his ran Award for Scientific Innovation and Giovanni DiChiro Award for Outstanding Scientific Researchesearch and teaching, including the Pioneer in Medicine Award, Smithsoni.  He holds the Ghada Irani chair in Neuroscience and has been on the Thomson Reuters' Highly Cited Researchers for many years.

Professor Cath Mummery is a Professor of Neurology and consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. She is chair of the NIHR Dementia Translational Research Collaboration, and Director of the NIHR UK Dementia Trials Network, building a national unified trials network for early phase clinical trials and working with the Mission to accelerate and enhance dementia translational research in novel treatments.
She is Head of Clinical Trials at the Dementia Research Centre at University College London. She has been chief investigator on over 20 early phase drug trials of potential disease modifying agents in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and genetic forms of AD and frontotemporal dementia. As clinical lead for the UCL Neurogenetic Therapies Programme, she leads a programme of innovative collaboration between industry and academia to accelerate progress in genetic therapies in dementia.
Her driving ambition is to ensure we not only have treatments that can alter the course of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, but that we can deliver them promptly, safely and equitably

Professor Henrik Zetterberg is Professor of Neurochemistry, Senior Consultant in Clinical Chemistry at the University of Gothenberg in Sweden. His research includes the development of methods for early diagnostics for frontotemporal dementia through the use of Biomarkers.^] In 2020, a team of scientists led by Zetterberg published results regarding a new diagnostic for Alzheimer's disease based on protein concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid, which is a colorless fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The test was reported to have an accuracy of around 90% and could detect the disease about two decades before significant symptoms were present.