2011 Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award

2011 Recipient

Dr. Kaj Blennow, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Clinical Neurochemistry; Head, Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital,
Mölndal, Sweden

Dr. Blennow's main research interest has been development of CSF biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease. He has published the original papers on the three ELISA methods for CSF total tau, phosphorylated tau, and beta-amyloid 42, which have been used in numerous scientific studies. Dr. Blennow also developed the first multiplex assay, based on the Luminex system, for these CSF biomarkers.

Dr. Blennow has published a large number of papers showing the usefulness of these CSF biomarkers in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and identifying prodromal Alzheimer's in patients with mild cognitive impairment. A leading theme in his work has been to make these analyses available as routine clinical tests. Dr. Blennow's laboratory has led this field since the mid-1990s; today, CSF biomarkers are increasingly used worldwide in the diagnostic workup of Alzheimer's patients. Aiming for international standardization of the CSF assays, Dr. Blennow initiated the Alzheimer Association quality control program for CSF biomarkers, with more than 60 laboratories participating worldwide.

In addition to use in clinical diagnosis, Dr. Belnnow has worked to introduce CSF biomarkers as tools to identify and monitor the biochemical effect of novel anti-Aβ disease-modifying drugs in Alzheimer's, for which the term "theragnostic biomarkers" was introduced. His laboratory serves as the CSF center in several ongoing multi-center clinical trials with these types of drugs.

Another research interest of Dr. Blennow has been pathogenic mechanism in Alzheimer's disease. Using a novel proteomics technique to Aβ isoforms, he identified a novel pathway for APP processing, which may have substantial importance for the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer's. The shorter Aβ isoforms produced in this pathway have also proved valuable in monitoring the effect of secretase inhibitors in Alzheimer's drug development.

2011 Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award

2011 Recipient

John Hardy, Ph.D.
Department of Molecular Neuroscience and Reta Lila
Weston Laboratories, UCL Institute of Neurology, United Kingdom

John Hardy received his degree in Biochemistry from Leeds in 1976 and his Ph.D. from Imperial College in Neuropharmacology in 1979. Dr. Hardy conducted post-doctoral work at the MRC Neuropathogenesis Unit and the Swedish Brain Bank in Umea, where he started to work on Alzheimer's disease. In 1985, he became a lecturer in biochemistry and molecular genetics at St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College, where he began working on the genetics of Alzheimer's disease. In 1991, he led the group that found the first mutation in the amyloid gene that causes Alzheimer's disease. This discovery led Dr. Hardy and others to formulate the amyloid hypothesis for the disease.

In 1992, he moved to the United States to work at the University of South Florida. In 1996, he began working for the Mayo Clinic where, in 2000, he became Chair of the Department of Neuroscience. In 1998, he was part of the consortium that identified mutations in the tau gene in Pick's disease. In 2001, Dr. Hardy joined the National Institutes of Health as the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, where he was part of the group that found triplications in the synuclein gene that causes Parkinson's disease. Dr. Hardy returned to the Department of Molecular Neuroscience at the Institute of Neurology in 2007.

Dr. Hardy is the recipient of the Allied Signal, Potamkin, MetLife and Kaul Prizes for his work on Alzheimer's disease and the Anna Marie Opprecht Prize for his work on Parkinson's disease. He is an elected member of the Academy of Medical Sciences and has received an honorary M.D. from the University of Umea, Sweden. In 2009, he was made an FRS by the Royal Society and in 2010 received an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Newcastle. Dr. Hardy has three adult children and two grandchildren who live in the US.

2011 Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award

2011 Recipient

Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.
John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics,
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Miami, Florida, United States

Dr. Pericak-Vance was raised in Buffalo, N.Y. She received a B.A. in biology from Wells College in 1973 and a Ph.D. in medical genetics from Indiana University in 1978 under Dr. P. Michael Conneally. She completed her post-doctoral training in the Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under the guidance of Robert C. Elston, Ph.D., after which she joined the Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, at Duke University as a research associate. Dr. Pericak-Vance built her career at Duke and, after becoming a professor of medicine, she founded the Center for Human Genetics. In 2007, she left Duke to found the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Dr. Pericak-Vance's greatest contribution is identifying the genetic variants for common and etiologically complex diseases. For more than two decades, she has played a major role in our understanding of the genetics contributing to Alzheimer's disease. Her research group's seminal 1993 paper describing the genetic role of APOE in Alzheimer's disease remains one of the most-cited papers in biomedical research. Now, she co-leads the analysis teams for the Alzheimer Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC), funded by the National Institute on Aging with the goal of definitively mapping the Alzheimer's genetic landscape. Beyond Alzheimer's, her work has further dissected the genetic etiology of multiple sclerosis, autism and age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

2011 Zaven Khachaturian Award at AAIC

2011 Recipient

Bruce T. Lamb, Ph.D.
Staff Scientist, Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institue, Cleveland Clinic; Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine; Professor, Departments of Neurosciences and Genetics, Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio, United States

As a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Lamb became interested in Alzheimer's disease. His research was focused on individuals with Down syndrome and their markedly increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Lamb became fascinated with the question of why the extra copies of genes on the Down syndrome chromosome would lead to Alzheimer's disease.

Analyzing the mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease is the focus of Dr. Lamb's current research. He is interested in finding diagnostic markers, as well as investigating treatments and environmental factors that may modify Alzheimer's disease symptoms, including genetics, diet, inflammation and head trauma.

Dr. Lamb received his undergraduate degree in biology at Swarthmore College and his doctoral degree in molecular biology at the University of Pennsylvania. He  was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Lamb joined the Department of Genetics at Case Western Reserve University in 1996 and the Department of Neurosciences and the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in 2005.

Last year, Dr. Lamb conceived the Alzheimer's Association Alzheimer's Breakthrough Ride, a cross-country relay-style bike ride to make Alzheimer's a national priority and raise awareness of the disease. While Dr. Lamb is not an avid cyclist, he enjoys taking long rides on weekends. On one of these rides, he pondered the difficulties in getting adequate federal funding for Alzheimer's disease research and became convinced that researchers needed to do even more to fight the disease. With the support of the Alzheimer's Association, his idea of a bike ride became a reality, and helped lead to the passage of the National Alzheimer's Project Act in 2011.

Dr. Lamb has received many honors, including the Genetics Colloquium Award for Achievement and Distinction in Graduate Teaching at Case Western University, which he received three times in 1997, 2004 and 2005, as well as the Jennifer B. Langston Award from the Alzheimer's Association Cleveland Chapter and the National Civic Award from the Alzheimer's Association in 2011.

de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging

Presented by the ISTAART Neuroimaging Professional Interest Area.

Senior Scientist

2011 Recipient

Christopher M. Clark, M.D.
Avid Radiopharmaceuticals
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

For the paper entitled: Use of Florbetapir-PET for Imaging B-Amyloid Pathology

Dr. Clark received his medical degree from the Jefferson College of Medicine in Philadelphia and his neurological training at Columbia University's Neurological Institute of New York. He has been involved in clinical research in Alzheimer's disease since 1985, first as the clinical director of the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Center at Duke University and then as the director of the Penn Memory Center, associate director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the University's Center of Excellence for Research on Neurodegenerative Diseases. In 2008, he joined Avid Radiopharmaceuticals as medical director. His research interests include the development and evaluation of biomarkers for the early detection of neurodegenerative disease pathology and the assessment of new treatments for Alzheimer's disease. 

Junior Investigator (Tie)

2011 Recipients

Jonathan M. Schott, M.D.
Dementia Research Centre, Institute of Neurology, UCL
Queen Square, London

For the paper entitled: Increased Brain Atrophy Rates in Cognitively Normal Older Adults With Low Cerebrospinal Fluid Ab1-42

Dr. Jonathan Schott is senior lecturer at the Dementia Research Centre, Institute of Neurology, University College London, and honorary consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology, Queen Square, United Kingdom. Dr Schott obtained his undergraduate science and medical degrees at St. Mary's Hospital, London. Following postgraduate training in internal medicine, he completed his doctoral thesis under the mentorship of professors Nick Fox and Martin Rossor at UCL. After completing clinical neurology training at the Royal Free Hospital and Queen Square, he returned to the Dementia Research Centre as senior lecturer in 2009.

Dr Schott splits his time between research and the clinic, where he cares for patients with both dementia and general neurological problems. His research interests are focused on translational research in the dementias with interests in autoimmune cognitive disorders and biomarkers for early diagnosis and trial outcome measures in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Schott was previously the recipient of a UK Alzheimer's Society Fellowship. His work is currently supported by a UK Higher Educational Funding Council Clinical Senior Lecturer Award and a grant support from Alzheimer's Research UK.

 

Duygu Tosun, Ph.D.
Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, VA Medical Center San Francisco
San Francisco, California, United States

For the paper entitled: Spatial Patterns of Brain Amyloid-B Burden and Atrophy Rate Associations in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Dr. Tosun is an associate research scientist under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Weiner at the Center of Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIND). In 1999, Dr. Tosun received her B.Sc. in electrical and electronics engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. In 2003, she received her M.A. in mathematics, and in 2005, her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering, both from Johns Hopkins University. She completed her postdoctoral training under the supervision of Dr. Arthur Toga at the Laboratory of NeuroImaging (LONI), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Tosun's research focuses on how multi-modality neuroimaging can effectively be utilized not only to improve the diagnostic accuracy in dementia, but also to study the biology of aging and neurodegenerative diseases. She received the Francois Erbsmann Prize for best article at the Information Processing in Medical Imaging conference in 2005 and the AFAR-GE Healthcare Junior Investigator Award for Excellence in Imaging and Aging Research in 2010 and 2011. Dr. Tosun will join the Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) this fall as an assistant professor.