ABOUT US

Barry Greenberg, Ph.D., Dr. Greenberg has been involved in Alzheimer’s disease research and Drug Discovery since 1985. He has held a series of positions internationally in the US, Sweden and Canada within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Greenberg was the leader of a Drug Discovery project at AstraZeneca through lead optimization, involving up to 50 individuals from eight departments. Before joining Toronto’s United Health Network (UHN) as Director, Neuroscience Drug Discovery and Development, he was Senior Director of Pharmacology at Neurochem, responsible for the preclinical biology research program and a contributor to the analyses of the Phase III Alzhemed trial. At UHN, he is also co-directing the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance (TDRA) as Director of Strategy, a consortium involving academic research and the five memory clinics at hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto to create a citywide dementia research center. He possesses a significant background in most aspects of the drug discovery process in neurological disease, with externally recognized expertise ranging from target identification and validation through preclinical and clinical development including issues of biomarker-based diagnosis and proof of concept. He has a strong international network in the Alzheimer field including industry, academia, government and the voluntary sector, plus previous involvement in multi-sector consortia. In 2012 he was a member of the committee responsible for drafting the scientific strategic recommendations to inform the National Alzheimer Plan in the US. He has authored or co-authored 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 19 book chapters and reviews.

Serge Gauthier, C.M., MD, FRCPC., Dr. Gauthier is a Professor at McGill University’s Departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Medicine; and Director of the Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Research Unit of the McGill University Research Centre for Studies in Aging, Douglas Mental Health University Institute.. Dr. Gauthier’s contributions to research include design and implementation of randomized clinical trials in order to establish the safety and efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors, muscarinic agonists, and agents possibly modifying progression for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Dr. Gauthier’s interests include consensus approach to the management of dementia in different stages, the ethics of research involving persons with dementia, and primary prevention strategies against cognitive decline and dementia. Dr. Gauthier completed his medical studies at Université de Montréal, and completed specialty training in Neurology at McGill University, followed by a Research Fellowship at Prof. Theodore L. Sourkes laboratory at Montreal’s Allen Memorial Institute. Dr. Gauthier previously served as clinical investigator and staff neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, Director of the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging and Senior Scientist of the CIHR-Rx&D program

Ludwig Aigner, Ph.D., Dr. Aigner is a neuroscientist that has made major contributions in the field of brain and spinal cord regeneration over the last 25 years. He received his Ph.D at the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he was the first to demonstrate that nerve fibre growth can be re-induced in the adult central nervous system through the expression of a certain protein. He moved on to Montreal, Canada, where he did a three year postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Albert Aguayo, demonstrating that a viral gene transfer of a neurotrophic factor was able to rescue damaged neurons in the retina. After that, he moved to the University of Regensburg, Germany, exploring the fascinating issue of adult neural stem cells with the possibility to generate new neurons in the adult, aged, and diseased brain. He was the first to develop tools to visualize neurogenesis in living animals and identified signaling mechanisms that are crucially involved in limiting brain regeneration. One of these mechanisms, leukotriene signaling, is related to asthma. In consequence, Dr. Aigner and his team recently demonstrated that the anti-asthmatic drug Montelukast structurally and functionally rejuvenates the aged brain. His main aim is to develop molecular and cellular therapies for patients with neurodegenerative diseases and for the aged population. Dr. Aigner is currently Professor and Head of the Institute of Molecular Regenerative Medicine at the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria. He is President of the Austrian Neuroscience Association and scientific board member of the Wings For Life spinal cord injury foundation. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals.