DEFEATING DEMENTIA:
NEW DIRECTIONS FROM THE BIOLOGY OF AGING
BACKGROUND
The recent progress in developing treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementias has created new momentum to accelerate progress by convening the academic and private sector expertise of the San Francisco Bay Area to discuss new and emerging approaches for treatment and prevention.
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Attract and cultivate new talent in the field
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Promote successful entrepreneurship in therapies and diagnostics
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Stimulate cross-fertilization of ideas and technologies across disciplines
We are launching this initiative by holding an invitation-only symposium at UC Berkeley’s new life science incubator, Bakar Labs, on Thursday, April 13, 2023.
AUDIENCE
This event anticipates attracting 200-300 delegates spanning from investors, entrepreneurs, non-profits, government bodies, academia, innovation directors, therapy area heads, CSOs, CMOs, and business development managers from biotech and pharma, and many others!
VENUE
All sessions will be held at Bakar Labs, located at 2625 Durant Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704.
CONFIRMED COMPANIES IN ATTENDANCE
3E Bioventures
AbbVie
AbbVie Ventures
Altos Labs
American Brain Foundation
Apple Tree Partners
Breakout Ventures
Caribou Biosciences
Civilization Ventures
DRHTM
Eos BioInnovation
Healthtech Capital
Janssen R&D, Neuroscience
Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Kaleida Capital
L’Oreal
Oberland Capital
Ono Venture Investment, Inc.
Panacea Venture
Pandect Bioventures
Pescadero Capital Advisors
Red Tree Venture Capital
Sherpa Healthcare Partners
Two Bear Capital
SYMPOSIUM GOALS:
1
Stimulate new thinking on brain disease by hearing of pertinent work on other aging-related diseases such as cancer
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Promote the development of a Bay Area ecosystem of researchers, investors, and companies in the dementia-related space
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Hear of novel approaches for dementia coming from top Bay Area labs, academic and private sector
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Recruit innovators into the space by having a start-up competition for resource awards
5
Encourage motivated Bay Area students to consider a career in the space
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Enlighten the community about the entrepreneurial support services available in Bakar Labs, ADDF and elsewhere
PROGRAM
All sessions will be held at Bakar Labs located at 2625 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704.
7:30 am
SESSION
PRESENTER
8:00
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PRESENTER
8:30
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PRESENTER
Mark Roithmayr, ADDF
Howard Fillit, MD, ADDF
8:45
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PRESENTER
9:15
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PRESENTER
9:25-10:35
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9:25
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9:30
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9:45
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10:00
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10:15
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10:35
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10:55
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11:10
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11:25
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11:40
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11:55
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12:10 pm
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12:30
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1:30
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1:30
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1:35
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1:45
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1:55
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2:00
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2:10
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2:20
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2:30
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2:40
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2:50
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3:00
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3:10
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3:20
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3:30
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3:40
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PRESENTER
4:00
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PRESENTER
6:15
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PRESENTER
6:25
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PRESENTER
Mark Roithmayr, ADDF
6:30
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PRESENTER
6:45
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PRESENTER
7:30
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PRESENTER
INNOVATION SHOWCASE
The symposium’s program invites applications from start-up companies to present for 15 minutes (10-minute pitch and 5-minute Q&A with the audience). This is an opportunity for start-up companies to showcase their research and present to an audience of representatives from industry, investment, and university communities.
Eight companies will be selected to present their technologies in the symposium’s Dementia Innovation Startup Showcase. All stage companies are invited to apply. Early spin-outs are encouraged, especially those with need for lab space.
Application process
The application deadline is Friday, March 3, 2023, 11:59 PT. All applications will be reviewed by the program committee and results will be communicated by email on or around March 13. Presentations will be evaluated onsite by a panel of judges, who will select a winner to be announced during the networking reception concluding the symposium.
Award
- Acceptance to Bakar Labs
- Access to the Bakar Labs Enrichment Programming
- Complimentary access to QB3 programs including the Precommercial Support
- Startup in a Box and Executive Mentorship programs
- $25,000 in legal credit with Bakar Labs Founding Affiliate, Wilson Sonsini.
Eligibility
One winner will be selected following the Innovation Showcase pitches. Preference will be given to companies interested in lab space at Bakar Labs though all companies are eligible to apply.
APPLICATION IS NOW CLOSED
REQUEST YOUR SEAT AT THE SYMPOSIUM
Conveners/Hosts


Howard Fillit, MD - Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
Dr. Howard Fillit is ADDF’s Founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer. He is a geriatrician, neuroscientist, and innovative philanthropy executive, who has led the ADDF since its founding. Dr. Fillit has held faculty positions at The Rockefeller University, the SUNY-Stony Brook School of Medicine and the Cornell University School of Medicine. In 1987, he joined the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he is a clinical professor of geriatric medicine and palliative care, medicine and neuroscience. Dr. Fillit also maintains a limited private practice in consultative geriatric medicine with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
He has authored or co-authored more than 300 publications and is the senior editor of Brocklehurst’s Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. Dr. Fillit is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Rita Hayworth Award from the Alzheimer’s Association. He is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America and the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Fillit earned his bachelor of arts in neurobiology cum laude from Cornell University and his medical degree from the SUNY-Upstate Medical University.
Regis Kelly, PhD - QB3 Institute
Dr. Regis B. Kelly is the Director of one of four California Institutes for Science and Innovation, created by the California Legislature to strengthen the academic foundation of its technology-based industries. QB3 is the only one of the four devoted exclusively to biology and to the life science industries. It is an innovation center made up of over 200 quantitative biologists at three northern California campuses (UCB, UCSC & UCSF) working at the interface of the physical and biological sciences and a team of professionals converting its discoveries into practical benefits for society.
From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Kelly served as Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of California in San Francisco, where his major responsibility was the new Mission Bay campus.
From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Kelly served as Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF; from 1988 to 1995, he was the Director of UCSF’s Cell Biology Graduate Program; and from 1992 to 2000, he was the Director of the Hormone Research Institute at UCSF. He has published extensively in the areas of cell and neurobiology.
Dr. Kelly received his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1961 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 1967. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford, Dr. Kelly was an instructor in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard. He has served as Chairman of the Bay Area Scientific Innovation Consortium (BASIC) and on the Boards of the Malaysian Biotechnology Industry Advisory Board, the Scleroderma Research Foundation, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, the San Francisco Mayor’s Biotechnology Advisory Group and the San Francisco China Desk, among others. He is also a General Partner of Mission Bay Capital venture fund.
Guest Presenters and Chairs (program order)


Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD - Stanford University
Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray is the D.H. Chen Distinguished Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and the Director of the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Stanford University. His lab studies brain aging and neurodegeneration with a focus on age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
The Wyss-Coray research team discovered that circulatory blood factors can modulate brain structure and function and factors from young organisms can rejuvenate old brains. Current studies focus on the molecular basis of the systemic communication with the brain by employing a combination of genetic, cell biology, and –omics approaches in killifish, mice, and humans.
Dr. Wyss-Coray has presented his ideas at Global TED, the Tencent WE Summit, and the World Economic Forum, and he was voted Time Magazine’s “The Health Care 50” most influential people transforming health care in 2018. He co-founded Alkahest Inc. and several other companies targeting Alzheimer’s and neurodegeneration and has been the recipient of an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a Zenith Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, and a NOMIS Foundation Award.
Meriel Owen, PhD - Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
Dr. Meriel Owen is Associate Director, Search & Evaluation at Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. She supports the scientific portfolio through strategic review and program management.
Dr. Owen earned her doctorate in neuroscience from Northwestern University, where she used neuroimaging and robotic techniques to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying motor impairment after stroke. She received a MSc from University College London in clinical neuroscience and a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Owen is also interested in the intersection between neuroscience and entrepreneurship.
During her graduate studies, she completed the Kellogg Management Program for scientists and engineers, was selected as a Northwestern Leadership Fellow, and co-founded a startup company that won the Neuro Startup Challenge.


Ryan Watts, PhD - Denali
Ryan Watts is the Chief Executive Officer of Denali Therapeutics. He is a co-founder, President and a member of the Board of Directors.
Under Ryan’s leadership, Denali has advanced multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical testing for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and ALS. Denali has invented a proprietary blood-brain barrier platform for delivery of therapeutic proteins to the brain. Ryan has also led efforts to raise significant capital to advance Denali’s therapeutic pipeline and has been instrumental in forging partnerships to accelerate the discovery and development of medicines for neurodegeneration.
Ryan previously served as Director of the Department of Neuroscience at Genentech. During his tenure there, he led the company’s re-entry into neuroscience. The Watts laboratory focused on drug discovery for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, with an emphasis on understanding mechanisms of neurodegeneration guided by human genetics. His lab also studied various aspects of blood-brain barrier biology and delivery.
Ryan obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Department of Biological Sciences and his B.S. in Biology from the University of Utah.
Anil Bushan, PhD - UCSF
Dr Anil Bhushan is Professor at University of California, San Francisco. He earned his PhD in Biophysics at University of California, Davis. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies where he worked on TGF-beta signaling in the specification and patterning of endoderm. He subsequently worked at Institute Curie and Hospital Robert Debre in Paris on pancreatic development.


Daniela Kaufer - University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Daniela Kaufer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. She was born and raised in Israel where she studied Biological Sciences at Technion, and received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biochemistry at Hebrew University. She was a Human Frontiers Post-doctoral Fellow at Stanford University, before joining the UC Berkeley faculty in 2005.
Daniela’s lab studies brain plasticity throughout life in face of stress and neurological insults, with a particular focus on plasticity involving adult neural stem cells and across the neurovascular unit – neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and the components of blood brain barrier.
Susanna Rosi, PhD - Altos Labs
Dr. Susanna Rosi is a Principal Investigator at the Altos Labs Bay Area Institute of Science. Prior to joining Altos, she was the Lewis and Rush Cozen Chair II, Professor in the Departments of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science and Neurological Surgery at UCSF.
Dr. Rosi studies the mechanisms responsible for the cognitive dysfunctions observed after traumatic brain injury, therapeutic brain irradiation and galactic cosmic ray exposure. Her work provided the mechanistic evidence for the role of microglia in the development of cognitive deficits after brain injury based on sex. She was the first to demonstrate that modulation of the Integrated Stress Response rescues cognitive deficits after brain trauma; rejuvenates old mice by alleviating memory deficits and restoring neuronal and immune dysfunction.
Dr. Rosi has been the recipient of several NCI, NIA, NINDS awards and she is a NASA investigator. Most recently, she received the 2021 J. W. Osborne Award.


Sara Kenkare-Mitra, PhD - Alector
Dr. Sara Kenkare-Mitra is President and Head of Research and Development at Alector. She leads all aspects of the company’s immuno-neurology and oncology R&D efforts, including oversight of the research, development, clinical, manufacturing, regulatory, and related functions.
Dr. Kenkare-Mitra was previously Senior Vice President, Development Sciences at Genentech, where she served as a member of the research and development leadership team, overseeing the transition of molecules from discovery to the clinic and their continued translation into medicines through clinical development. During her 23-year tenure, she led a large, integrated global organization of approximately 650 employees, and played a key role in the filing of more than 100 Investigational New Drug/clinical trial applications around the world, and the approval of 15 medicines for diverse diseases, including cancers and neurological diseases.
Dr. Kenkare-Mitra received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, where she also stayed on as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology before joining Genentech. Dr. Kenkare-Mitra also holds adjunct faculty positions in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. Dr. Kenkare-Mitra is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
She has been widely recognized for her work in the industry with awards such as the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists’ Alice E. Till Advancement of Women in Pharmaceutical Sciences Recognition, Endpoints’ 20 Most Extraordinary Women in Biopharma, Fierce Pharma’s Fiercest Women in the Life Sciences, and the University of California, San Francisco’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.
Suzanne Pfeffer, PhD - Stanford University
Dr. Suzanne Pfeffer obtained an AB in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and a doctorate in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco for work on the recycling of synaptic vesicles. In 1984, she moved to Stanford as a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Pfeffer joined the Stanford faculty in 1986, where she is currently a professor of biochemistry and the Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Medical Sciences.
Dr. Pfeffer is an expert in the molecular basis of membrane trafficking and Rab proteins as key regulators of the process.
A past president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2010-12) and the American Society for Cell Biology (2003), Dr. Pfeffer is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society for Cell Biology. Her research program focuses on LRRK2 phosphorylation of Rab proteins in Parkinson’s disease.


Martin Kampmann, PhD - UCSF
Dr. Martin Kampmann is an Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and the IND. He received his BA and MA in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) from Cambridge University and his PhD from the Rockefeller University, where he used biophysical approaches to characterize the architecture and dynamics of the nuclear pore complex with Dr. Günter Blobel.
As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jonathan Weissman’s group at UCSF, Dr. Kampmann spearheaded the development of a functional genomics platform that makes it possible to robustly identify human genes relevant to a cellular process of interest, and to elucidate cellular pathways and networks using systematic genetic interaction maps. One important application of the screening platform is the identification of genes that control the sensitivity of cells to a given drug. This approach can identify the relevant cellular targets of new compounds, predict drug-resistance mechanisms, and guide the rational development of combination therapies.
Currently, the goal of Dr. Kampmann’s research is to understand how human cells maintain their proteins in a functional and balanced state. The cellular pathways safeguarding proteome function and balance are termed the “proteostasis network.” Dr. Kampmann aims to elucidate how the proteostasis network dynamically adapts to the needs of the cell and how it is challenged and rewired in diseases, especially cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Identification of proteostasis factors that control formation, spread, and clearance of protein aggregates associated with neurodegenerative diseases will shed light on the disease mechanisms and reveal potential therapeutic targets.
Aimee Kao, MD, PhD - UCSF
Dr. Aimee Kao is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and a John Douglas French Foundation Endowed Professor. She directs the UCSF Tau Consortium Human Fibroblast and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Bank and leads the UCSF Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC) Neurodegenerative Disease Biomarker Core.
Dr. Kao’s clinical expertise includes the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Her basic science laboratory studies how age, stress and pH changes affect protein homeostasis and contribute to sporadic and familial neurodegenerative disorders.
She has received the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Distinguished Investigator Award in Neurodegenerative Diseases, the Glenn Award for Research in the Biological Mechanisms of Aging and the Derek Denny Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award.
ORGANIZERS
QB3/Bakar Labs
QB3 is the University of California’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in life science. The institute supports UC researchers and empowers California founders to launch startup companies and partner with industry.
QB3 has a 20-year track record of spinning off innovative endeavors such as the venture capital firms Mission Bay Capital and Medtech Venture Partners; several incubators, including QB3@953 (now part of MBC Biolabs); and a health technology initiative, the UCSF Rosenman Institute.
QB3 founded and operates Bakar Labs, the incubator at UC Berkeley’s Bakar BioEnginuity Hub. Companies affiliated with QB3 brought in $942 million in funding in 2022.
Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation
Founded in 1998 by Leonard A. and Ronald S. Lauder, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is dedicated to rapidly accelerating the discovery of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer’s disease. The ADDF is the only public charity solely focused on funding the development of drugs for Alzheimer’s, employing a venture philanthropy model to support research in academia and the biotech industry.
The ADDF’s leadership and contributions to the field have played a pivotal role in bringing the first Alzheimer’s PET scan (Amyvid™) and blood test (PrecivityAD™) to market, as well as fueling the current robust and diverse drug pipeline.
Through the generosity of its donors, the ADDF has awarded nearly $250 million to fund over 720 Alzheimer’s drug discovery programs, biomarker programs and clinical trials in 19 countries.
CONTACT
Program: Regis Kelly, PhD (Regis.Kelly@ucsf.edu) and Meriel Owen, PhD (mowen@alzdiscovery.org).
Partnerships and Logistics: Riley Hummel (rileyhummel@berkeley.edu)
Registrations: meetings@alzdiscovery.org