Dr. Nath received his MD degree from Christian Medical College in India in 1981 and completed a residency in Neurology from University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, followed by a fellowship in Multiple Sclerosis and Neurovirology at the same institution and then a fellowship in Neuro-AIDS at NINDS. He held faculty positions at the University of Manitoba (1990-97) and the University of Kentucky (1997-02). In 2002, he joined Johns Hopkins University as Professor of Neurology and Director of the Division of Neuroimmunology and Neurological Infections. He joined NIH in 2011 as the Clinical Director of NINDS, the Director of the Translational Neuroscience Center and Chief of the Section of Infections of the Nervous System. His research focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of retroviral infections of the nervous system and the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for these diseases. 

Jann Sarkaria, MD, is a physician-scientist and Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His clinical focus is treating lung and brain malignancies with external beam photon or proton radiation. As Principal Investigator of the Translational Neuro-Oncology Laboratory, his work focuses on developing novel therapeutic strategies for treating both primary and metastatic brain tumors. Central to this work is the development and characterization of a large panel of patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) developed from brain tumor resection specimens. His laboratory has used these PDX models extensively to evaluate the efficacy of conventional and molecularly targeted therapies for glioblastoma (GBM). Central research themes include evaluation of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of therapy resistance to radiation and temozolomide, development of novel radio- or chemo-sensitizing agents for brain tumors, and understanding the influence of heterogeneous drug delivery into brain tumors on treatment response and evolution of therapy resistance. All of these themes are highly translational with an ultimate goal of improving therapy for brain tumors.    

Dr. Abraham Scaria has more than 25 years of experience in gene therapy, ranging from discovery research to early-stage clinical trials. For much of his career, Dr. Scaria has specialized in viral gene therapy vectors and ocular gene therapy, having served as Senior Scientific Director of Gene Therapy and Ophthalmology at Genzyme-Sanofi and subsequently Head of Gene Therapy Research at Sanofi. He is currently Chief Scientific Officer at IVERICbio, Inc. Most recently, Dr. Scaria was Vice President and Head of Ophthalmology at Casebia Therapeutics, where he oversaw efforts to develop gene-editing based therapies for inherited retinal diseases. He earned his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from Indiana University School of Medicine and conducted postdoctoral research at St. Louis University School of Medicine and at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Dr. Scaria has more than 45 publications and currently serves on several committees for the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy. 

Dennis Selkoe, the Vincent and Stella Coates Professor of Neurologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has devoted his career to the use of molecular approaches to study Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease and related basic biological questions.  He is a graduate of Columbia University and the University of Virginia School of Medicine.  After initial research training at the National Institutes of Health (NINDS), he completed a residency in neurology at the Harvard/Longwood Program and a postdoctoral fellowship in neuronal cell biology and neurochemistry in the Department of Neuroscience, HMS.  In 1978, he founded a laboratory applying biochemical and cell biological techniques to the study of human neurodegeneration. 

Selkoe and coworkers broke new ground in 1982 when they developed a method to isolate the abnormal neurofibrillary tangles that are a hallmark of AD and described their unusual chemical properties.  With other labs, they identified the microtubule-associated protein tau as the principal component of tangles.  Selkoe then turned his attention to the other hallmark lesion of AD — the amyloid plaque — and has conducted extensive experiments on the amyloid ß-protein (Aß) and its precursor, APP.  The results led him to formulate a theory — the amyloid (or Aß) hypothesis — about the pathogenic cascade that causes AD.  In 1992, Selkoe and collaborators discovered that Aß is continuously produced by normal cells throughout life.  This unexpected finding initiated the dynamic study of Aß formation in cultured cells and has enabled the identification of Aß production inhibitors.  The lab showed that inherited mutations in APP, and later the presenilin genes, cause AD by increasing the generation of Aß.  In 1999, Selkoe and colleagues identified presenilin as the long-sought gamma-secretase, an unprecedented intramembrane aspartyl protease that processes APP, Notch and many other proteins.  Recently, the Selkoe lab conducted a series of studies showing that small, soluble oligomers of Aß are responsible for synaptic injury and interfere with memory. 

These advances have led to numerous awards, including the Potamkin Prize (shared with George G. Glenner), the Metropolitan Life Foundation Award, and the A.H. Heineken Price for Medicine.  Selkoe is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He co-founded and co-directs the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  Selkoe was the principal founding scientist of Athena Neurosciences, now Elan Pharmaceuticals.  He has served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, the Neuroscience Review Committee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Advisory Council on Aging (NIH).  With HMS Dean Joseph P. Martin, he founded the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair in 2001. 

Gaia is the VP of biology at Herophilus and specializes in target and therapeutic discovery using patient derived stem cells and organoid biology. She earned a PhD at the Institute of Neurology in London where she identified a novel gene for Frontotemporal Dementia. Her training at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco led to several publications describing complex in vitro primary rodent and human neural models that she used to study basic mechanisms of neurodegeneration. She subsequently developed and led a series of collaborations with academic, industry and technology groups to identify and validate therapeutic targets and drugs using these models. She is now VP of biology at Herophilus, integrating complex human neural models with automation, software and data analytics to build highly predictive models at scale for drug discovery.

Serena is Gilbert H. Glaser Professor of Neurology and Chief, Division of Neurological Infections and Global Neurology at Yale University. Her clinical and translational research explores effects of HIV and other viral infections in the nervous system, focusing on effects of acute infection, antiviral and immune treatments, and cure strategies on viral pathogenesis and persistence in the central nervous system (CNS). She collaborates with colleagues of multiple disciplines in studies in the United States and in international settings, exploring questions of inflammation, injury, and viral reservoirs within the central nervous system.  She has been active in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Neurology and HIV Reservoirs and Eradication committees, co-leads the International NeuroHIV Cure Consortium, serves on the US DHHS Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines Committee, CROI Program Committee, and leads multidisciplinary projects addressing the pathobiology of HIV and SARS-CoV-2 in the CNS.  She also is a neurology physician who cares for patients with viral infections and neurological disorders in clinics at Yale. 

Dr. Thomas Sutula is an Emeritus Professor of Neurology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He served as the Detling Professor and Chair of Department of Neurology at Wisconsin from 1995-2016, and as the campus Director of the Center for Neuroscience from 2001-2011. He served as President of the American Epilepsy Society in 2002, and currently serves as President of the American Society of Experimental Neural Therapeutics (ASENT). Dr. Sutula’s career has included clinical practice in Neurology and epilepsy, as well as research on the causes, consequences, and treatment of epilepsy. His research has focused on understanding how the capacity for activity-dependent plasticity in neural circuitry influences epilepsy and its consequences, with particular attention to kindling, a phenomenon of seizure-induced plasticity that models temporal lobe epilepsy. In 1988 he discovered that repeated brief seizures evoked by kindling induced sprouting of the mossy fiber axons in the dentate gyrus, and in 1989 demonstrated that sprouting is a feature of human temporal lobe epilepsy. Sprouting has subsequently been recognized in virtually all models of chronic focal epilepsy. His laboratory has provided extensive characterization of the anatomical features of the sprouted pathway, demonstrated that sprouting increases as a function of repeated seizures, and contributes to recurrent excitation in the dentate gyrus. In another series of studies, his laboratory has also demonstrated that repeated brief seizures evoked by kindling induce hippocampal neuronal loss in a pattern mimicking hippocampal sclerosis, with accompanying progressive memory deficits. His current work focuses on the development of posttraumatic epilepsy, and the novel anticonvulsant mechanisms of the glucose analogue 2DG, which was discovered in his laboratory in 2006. He has served as the principal investigator/project leader of the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science BrIDGs project that is advancing 2DG toward FDA approval and market introduction for status epilepticus, acute repetitive seizures, and for prevention of delayed consequence of traumatic brain injury. 

Dr. Tallon completed her Bachelors of Science in physiology at McGill University before going on to earn her PhD in Pathobiology at Johns Hopkins University. She completed her doctoral thesis work in the lab of Dr. Mohamed Farah determining the inverse role BACE1 plays in peripheral nerve regeneration following nerve injury and disease in animal models. She also studied the efficacy of BACE1 inhibitors on enhancing peripheral nerve regeneration and sprouting following injury and disease. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Barbara Slusher at Johns Hopkins University studying the efficacy of neutral sphingomyelinase 2 inhibitors on delaying tau propagation in animal models of Alzheimer’s Disease. On top of her work in Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Tallon is also studying the efficacy of other small molecule inhibitors in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and sarcopenia associated with aging within the lab.

Sharon Tamir is the Head of GBM and Rare Oncology Indications at Karyopharm, where she is focused on the development of Selinexor, also known as KPT-330, selective inhibitor of nuclear export compound, for the treatment of patients with Glioblastoma and other rare oncology indications. Previously, she was the Head of External Alliances at United Neurosciences and held the position of Head of Neurodegenerative and Infectious Diseases at Karyopharm Therapeutics, where she managed a portfolio of research projects. She led multiple successful grant submission efforts to the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense and private foundations. Ms. Tamir built the neurodegenerative disease program at Karyopharm Therapeutics from hypothesis to clinical trial, resulting in a lucrative agreement for Biogen to acquire the program. Ms. Tamir received her B.A. in psychology from the Open University of Israel and her Heilpraktiker Diploma from The Trade school of Naturopathy Practitioners Saarbrucken, Germany. She is the co-Chair of the ASENT Annual Meeting Program Committee and a member of the ASENT Board of Directors.  

Dr. Amir Tamiz is the Director of the Division of Translational Research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Prior to that he was a program director overseeing the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics network (BPN) and Innovation Grants to Nurture Initial Translational Efforts (IGNITE).  Prior to joining NIH in 2012, Dr. Tamiz had held scientific and management positions in research and development of therapeutic programs at Corvas International (acquired by Dendreon), CovX (now part of Pfizer), and Alba Therapeutics.  

Dr. Tamiz earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in Eugene where he studied the use of NMDA receptor antagonists as a potential treatment for various neurological disorders and then completed a research fellowship at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., investigating serotonin and dopamine transporter inhibitors to combat drug addiction. 

Dr. Vitorovic currently holds dual appointment as an Assistant Professor at The University of Vermont Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he practices as a neurologist, specializing in epilepsy. Dr. Vitorovic completed his Neurology Residency at Loyola University Medical Center and Clinical Neurophysiology and Epilepsy Fellowship at Barrow Neurological Institute. Dr. Vitorovic is actively engaged in clinical research and is dedicated to finding effective and safe novel treatment options for his patients.

He believes that a personal approach and development of a therapeutic relationship between his patients, their families and himself is the key for successful treatment of epilepsy. He understands that every patient is different and careful consideration of tests and treatment options is important at every stage of the treatment process. He encourages discussion of different treatment options and coverage of both medical and surgical treatments for epilepsy. His goal for his patients is seizure freedom and he is excited to work with them toward that goal. For Dr. Vitorovic, it is very rewarding experience to see his patients leading independent and fulfilling lives as much as possible.

Dr. Milton Werner is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Inhibikase Therapeutics, a company developing novel protein kinase inhibitor therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative disease and viral infection inside and outside of the brain. Previously, Dr. Werner served as Vice President of Research at Celtaxsys, a cell-free immunotherapeutics company. From September 1996 until June 2007, Dr. Werner was a Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics at The Rockefeller University in New York City. Throughout his scientific career, Dr. Werner has been an innovator integrating chemistry, physics, and biology into a comprehensive approach to solving problems in medicine, including an explanation of the origin of “maleness” in humans, the mechanistic basis of several forms of leukemia and lymphoma and, more recently, the development of therapeutics that can halt and potentially reverse functional loss in neurodegenerative disease. 

Dr. Werner is the author or co-author of more than 70 research articles, reviews, and book chapters and has given lectures on his research work throughout the world. He is the recipient of numerous private and public research grants totaling more than $30 million. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Naito Memorial Foundation Prize, the Young Investigator Award from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Foundation, the Research Chair from the Brain Tumor Society, and a $1 million Distinguished Young Scholars in Medical Research Award from the W. M. Keck Foundation. Dr. Werner received his Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California, and he was an NIH intramural postdoctoral fellow prior to his tenure at the Rockefeller University. 

Dr. Wirth is the Chief Medical Officer for Aspen Neuroscience. He most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer for Lineage Cell Therapeutics before joining Aspen. He received his MD/PhD from the University of Florida in 1994 and remained to conduct postdoctoral research including leading the Florida team that performed the first human embryonic spinal cord transplant in the U.S. Ed went on to serve as the Medical Director for Regenerative Medicine at Geron Corporation where the world’s first clinical trial of human embryonic stem cell (hES)-derived product occurred which demonstrated initial clinical safety. He then went on to serve as Chief Science Officer at InVivo Therapeutics Corporation before joining Lineage Cell Therapeutics as the Chief Translational Officer. 

Dr. David Ziegler completed his Ph.D. in Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he took a cutting-edge multimodal neuroimaging approach to examine the effects of healthy aging and Parkinson’s disease on cognitive control systems in the brain. The current focus of his research is on unmasking the neural mechanisms that account for age-related changes in cognitive control and to translate these basic neuroscience findings into cognitive neurotherapeutic interventions to alleviate impairments in attention in diverse populations. He has a particular interest in merging complementary mind-body approaches, such as meditation and yoga, with neuroplasticity-based interventions to improve cognition while also enhancing overall wellbeing. Dr. Ziegler has received numerous awards, including a UCSF School of Medicine Technology Transformation Grant, a Human Brain Mapping Trainee Travel Award, the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at MIT, the Denison University President’s Medal, and was a two-time recipient of the Harvard/MIT/MGH Advanced Multimodal Neuroimaging Training Program Fellowship. His research has been featured in The New York Times, the Faculty of 1000, the MIT Spotlight, Nature Outlook, and in numerous regional media outlets.