Stanley B. Prusiner is Director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Professor of Neurology and Biochemistry at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He received his B.A. in Chemistry in 1964 and his M.D. in 1968 from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his military service as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health and his neurology residency training at UCSF, he joined the UCSF faculty in 1974 and set up a laboratory to study brain diseases.

Prusiner discovered an unprecedented class of pathogens that he named prions. Prions are proteins that acquire an alternative shape that becomes self-propagating. As prions accumulate, they cause neurodegenerative diseases in animals and humans. Prusiner’s discovery led him to develop a novel disease paradigm: prions cause disorders such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans that manifest as (1) sporadic, (2) inherited and (3) infectious illnesses. When proposed, many scientists considered Prusiner’s concept of “infectious proteins” as well as his proposal that a single protein could possess multiple biologically active shapes or conformations to be heretical. Based on his seminal discovery that prions can assemble into amyloid fibrils, Prusiner proposed that the more common neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases may be caused by prions. Remarkably, a wealth of evidence continues to accumulate arguing that prions cause not only these common degenerative diseases, but also the frontotemporal dementias (FTDs), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), multiple system atrophy (MSA) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Much of Prusiner’s current research focuses on developing therapeutics that reduce the levels of the specific prions responsible for MSA, DLB, and some FTDs as well as CTE.

Prusiner’s contributions to scientific research have been internationally recognized: He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a foreign member of the Royal Society, London. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Disease Research from the American Academy of Neurology (1991); the Richard Lounsbery Award for Extraordinary Scientific Research in Biology and Medicine from the National Academy of Sciences (1993); the Gairdner Foundation International Award (1993); the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1994); the Wolf Prize in Medicine from the State of Israel (1996); the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1997); and the United States Presidential National Medal of Science (2009).

Prusiner is the author of over 550 scientific research and 300 review articles, and editor of 13 books on diseases caused by prions. Prusiner’s single-author book Madness and Memory, which chronicles his discovery of prions, received wide acclaim. He holds 50 issued or allowed United States patents, all of which are assigned to the University of California. He has delivered over 150 honorary and over 750 invited lectures.

Kristophe Diaz, PhD, is the executive director and chief scientific officer of CurePSP. In this role, he oversees the foundation’s operations, including research grants, patient and family advocacy and support, education and awareness, its Centers of Care, partnerships, and fundraising.

Prior to being hired by CurePSP, Dr. Diaz led multidisciplinary programs at Cohen Veterans Bioscience, Cambridge, Mass., a nonprofit organization focusing on trauma-related brain disorders. He received his PhD in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; his master’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at Université du Québec, Montreal; and his Bachelor of Arts degree in molecular biology and genetics at Université de Montpellier (France), where he was an Erasmus Mundus Fellow.

Additional resources:
https://www.psp.org/

He directs the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS), a national grant-funded network and coordinating center that has a current portfolio of 10 clinical trials.

Dr. Feldman has made vital contributions in scientific discoveries and clinical research studies focused on aging, mild cognitive impairment/Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and diagnostic/therapeutic trials. He has led numerous international clinical trials in AD resulting in important original data and informing care across the continuum of the disease. In the field of frontotemporal dementia, he has contributed to the discoveries of the progranulin (Nature 2006) and C9ORF72 (Neuron 2011) genetic mutations as well as to the elucidation of TDP43. He has helped lead the international working group that has reframed diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease that have re-conceptualized the disease and transformed the approach to clinical trials (Lancet Neurology 2007, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2021).

His career contributions have been profiled in Lancet Neurology in 2007. He has been named by Web of Science Clarivate Analytics as a ‘highly cited’ neuroscientist and among ‘the world’s most influential scientific minds’ (2008-18). He was appointed as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the American Academy of Neurology in 2008. In 2019, he was also ranked #1 PI in Neurosciences funding from NIH by Blueridge Institute for Medical Research.

Additional resources: profiles.ucsd.edu/howard.feldman

Dr. Debra Niehoff is the Director of Research & Grants for the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD). Dr. Niehoff oversees AFTD’s research portfolio, including grant programs supported in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and Target ALS as well as networking, training, and mentorship opportunities that provide additional support to the FTD research community.

Dr. Niehoff received her PhD in Pharmacology from the Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining AFTD, she developed and served as the coordinator for one of the first two-year neuroscience programs in the U.S. She is the author of The Biology of Violence: How Understanding the Brain, Behavior, and Environment Can Break the Vicious Circle of Aggression and The Language of Life: How Cells Communicate in Health and Disease and serves on the editorial board of the journal Violence and Gender.

Additional resources:
www.theaftd.org/

Dr. Ellen Cahir-McFarland earned a PhD in Immunology as Washington University in St. Louis studying T cell receptor signaling. Her postdoctoral fellowship and academic research lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital focused on how Epstein-Barr Virus co-opts cellular signaling pathways to drive B-lymphocytes transformation.

In 2011, Ellen joined Biogen Discovery Research and advanced programs in virology, immunology, neuroimmunology and multiple sclerosis. In 2020, Ellen joined Annexon be part of the Ben Barres legacy to evaluate anti-C1q and complement therapies in neurodegeneration.

Additional resources: https://annexonbio.com/

Adam L. Boxer, MD, PhD, is Endowed Professor in Memory and Aging in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He directs UCSF’s Neurosciences Clinical Research Unit and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) Clinical Trials Program at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. Dr. Boxer’s research is focused on developing new treatments and biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly those involving tau and TDP-43.

Dr. Boxer received his medical and doctorate degrees as part of the NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program at New York University Medical Center. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at California Pacific Medical Center, a residency in Neurology at Stanford University Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in behavioral neurology at UCSF.

He is the principal investigator (PI) of the Advancing Research and Treatment for FTLD (ARTFL) Rare Disease Clinical Research Consortium, a collaborative project funded by the National Institutes of Health to create an 18-center North American research network to support the development of new therapies for FTLD. He also leads the Four Repeat Tauopathy Neuroimaging Initiative (4RTNI), a multicenter, longitudinal tau PET and biomarker study focused on PSP and CBD. He has been the PI for a variety of multicenter, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trials in FTLD spectrum disorders, including memantine for FTLD, davunetide for PSP, TPI-287 for primary and secondary tauopathies, and salsalate for PSP. In the past he has led a variety of clinical trials in FTD and PSP including a US multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial of a therapeutic agent for frontotemporal dementia (memantine/Namenda®) and an international, phase 2/3, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the microtubule stabilizing agent, davunetide (NAP, Al-108), for PSP.

He is lead principle investigator for an international Phase 2 clinical trial of the tau monoclonal antibody, BIIB092, for PSP. He also leads the FTD Treatment Study Group (FTSG), a group looking to speed the development of new therapies for FTD.

Additional resources:
memory.ucsf.edu/people/adam-boxer-md-phd

Lawrence (Larry) Carter, PhD, is Vice President Clinical Science, Neurology at Alector where he is serving as the Clinical Lead on Alector’s development programs in FTD and ALS. He has worked across academic, industry, and government settings, with approximately 15 years of industry experience.

Prior to joining Alector, Dr. Carter was VP of R&D at Alexza Pharmaceuticals where he led drug-device combination development programs in rare diseases. Prior to that he was an Executive Director of Clinical Development and a Global Development Lead at Jazz Pharmaceuticals where he led the global development program for Sunosi, resulting in successful regulatory submissions for multiple indications in the US, EU, and Canada.

Dr. Carter has also served as a Special Government Employee to FDA and as a consultant to several pharmaceutical companies. He has a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio and completed a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.