A global dialogue on early career scientists in dementia is taking place on 10 November 2021 and will gather international leaders to discuss this area of focus as part of the dementia landscape project. This dialogue will be led by Professor Anja Leist, co-chair of World Young Leaders in Dementia and Professor Paulo Caramelli, professor of neurology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Wednesday 10 November 2021
06:00 PST San Francisco | 08:00 CST Chicago | 09:00 EST New York | 14:00 GMT London | 15:00 CET Central Europe
90 minutes
Chairs
Professor Anja Leist
Anja Leist is Associate Professor in Public Health and Ageing at the University of Luxembourg. Her research focuses on cognitive ageing and dementia, technology and ageing, and health inequalities from a social epidemiological and life course perspective. Anja is PI on several grants, among them a grant from the European Research Council, to pursue innovative research on cognitive ageing and dementia from a prevention and risk reduction perspective, with a focus on lifestyle behaviours and inequalities related to education and gender. Anja is elected Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and cofounder and advisor to the World Young Leaders in Dementia (WYLD) network that is now spanning 30 countries and 250+ professionals in the fields of dementia research, care, and innovation.
Professor Paulo Caramelli
Paulo Caramelli obtained his MD degree in 1987 at the University of São Paulo (USP) School of Medicine, in São Paulo, Brazil and completed the residency program in Neurology at the same institution in 1991. Research fellow at the University of Montréal, Canada, from 1992 to 1994. In 1997, he completed a PhD in Neurological Sciences at USP. He is currently Professor of Neurology at the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and Coordinator of the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Research Group at UFMG, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Member of the International Working Group on Neurocognitive Disorders of the World Health Organization for the Revision of ICD-11 (2011 – 2017). Current member of the Advisory Council of the Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART). Editor of Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria. Associate editor of eNeurologicalSci and Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, as well as member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Neurology and Neurological Sciences. His research activities are focused on epidemiological, clinical and translational studies on brain aging, cognitive impairment and dementia.
Speakers
Dr Heather Snyder
Dr. Snyder is the VP of Medical and Scientific Relations at the Alzheimer’s Association. She oversees Association initiatives that accelerate Alzheimer’s research and provide opportunities for the global dementia community. She is responsible for the progress the Association has made in Alzheimer's and dementia research funding. She leads the Association’s International Research Grant Program, through which the Association funds investigations that advance understanding of Alzheimer's and moves the field toward solutions for the global Alzheimer's crisis. As the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research, the Association is currently investing over $250 million in more than 700 active best-of-field projects in 39 countries.
Dr Claire Sexton
Claire Sexton, DPhil, is director of Scientific Programs & Outreach at the Alzheimer’s Association. In this role, she leads research programs and initiatives to accelerate the Association’s scientific agenda. Dr. Sexton works alongside a committee of expert researchers to develop scientific programming for the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference® (AAIC®), the largest and most influential international meeting dedicated to advancing dementia science. Annually, AAIC offers over 2,000 posters and more than 100 podium presentations on basic science, risk factors, diagnosis, causes, risk factors, and potential methods of treatment and prevention to nearly 6,000 of the world’s leading researchers. To expand the Association’s reach, Dr. Sexton also manages the AAIC Satellite Symposia, which bring researchers together to network and explore emerging dementia science in targeted areas around the world. She oversees conference programming, including speakers, poster sessions and opportunities to foster collaboration. As an expert in the field, Dr. Sexton delivers presentations to audiences around the country on the Association’s role in scientific advancements and the overall state of Alzheimer’s and dementia research.
Dr Claudia Ramos
Claudia Ramos attended the School of Medicine at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, from 2002-2008 and 2011-2015, where she got her degree in Medicine and Psychiatry, respectively. Then, Ramos started to work as the Mental Health Service Coordinator for patients with dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders at the Neurosciences Group of Antioquia, GNA. At the GNA, Ramos was aware of her passion for brain research, and luckily, she got an opportunity to do a fellowship at the Global Brain Health Institute, GBHI, from 2017-2018. After finishing her scholarship, Ramos returned to GNA to develop a pilot project granted by the GBHI and Alzheimer’s Association about the relationship between substance consumption and age at onset and progression speed of people with a high risk of familial Alzheimer’s disease AD. Now, she coordinates a study group about the link between emotion and cognition, works with a support group for caregivers of people with dementia, and is doing her Ph.D. to design a multimodal intervention online to improve functionality in people with AD and reduce AD caregivers’ burden.
Dr Ríona McArdle
Ríona McArdle is a NIHR Advanced Research Fellow at Newcastle University. With a background in psychology, she was awarded a PhD in Neuroscience from Newcastle University in 2019. Her research focuses on the use of digital technology to improve how we diagnose and care for people with dementia. She is currently leading the ActivDem project, which aims to identify psychosocial determinants of physical activity loss in people with dementia following diagnosis. Beyond her fellowship, she is the Head of Content, Policy and Research at the World Young Leaders in Dementia, and is the Northern Regional Lead for the Dementia Deep Phenotyping (DEMON) Network.
Dr Adam Smith
Adam Smith is a Programme Director at University College London, within the Queen Square Biomedical Research Centre. Adam has over 25 years’ experience leading healthcare and research improvement initiatives within the NHS and Department of Health, and has been focussed on dementia for the past 11 years. His work has included creating Join Dementia Research a public engagement and study recruitment service and work to increase care home residents participation in research. He currently leads some of the UKs efforts to improve support for early career dementia researchers, aiming to change research systems and culture, and attract and retain people within the field, across all areas of discovery. Adam writes blogs, hosts podcasts and is Chair of the Alzheimer’s Association ISTAART PIA to Elevate Early Career Researchers, he holds an honorary position at University of Sydney and sits on the UK Health Research Authority National Research & Ethics Advisors’ Panel.
Dr Beth Shaaban
Dr. Shaaban is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and a University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Research Education Component (REC) Scholar. She integrates epidemiology and neuroscience research methods to study gender/sex and vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), using a Population Neuroscience framework. Her work has included evaluation of physical activity, vascular risk factor reduction, growth factors, vascular disorders during pregnancy, and gender/sex differences in AD-related brain pathology. Dr. Shaaban presently serves as the Vice Chair of the Professional Interest Area (PIA) to Elevate Early Career Researchers (PEERs) in the Alzheimer's Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment (ISTAART). She is passionate about how to best support early career dementia researchers around the world.
Other dialogues in the series
To inform the dementia landscape report, the Council has hosted global dialogues for international dementia leaders focusing on key themes of research, care and prevention that were identified at the London dementia summit in 2013, as well as on additional key themes and new policy priorities that we have agreed to highlight in the report. See below for other upcoming dialogues.