Speakers

As of 7/13/09
List of invited speakers, names in alphabetical order and affiliates –
* denotes positive response with tentative titles:

*Rao M. Adibhatla –Assistant Professor, Dept of Neurological Surgery, Univ Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, WI, “Protective role of D609 by cell cycle regulation after ischemic neuronal injury.”
*Robert E. Anderson – Professor of Ophthalmology and Cell Biology, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, “Neuroprotection of the retina through light activation of the insulin receptor.”
*Haydee Bazan – Professor of Ophthalmology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, LSU Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, “Neurotrophins and DHA induce nerve regeneration.”
*Nicolas Bazan –Professor and Director, Neuroscience Center, LSU Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, “Omega-3 essential fatty acids modulates initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases.”
*Guy C. Brown –Professor, Dept Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, “iNOS, PHOX & phagocytosis: three axises of inflammatory neurodegeneration.”
*Pak H. Chan – Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA, “Reperfusion and neurovascular dysfunction in stroke: from basic mechanisms to potential strategies for neuroprotection.”
*Yijuang Chern – Research Fellow/Professor, Institute of Biomedical Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, “Targeting astrocytes for the pathogenesis of Hungtington’s disease.”
*De-Maw Chuang – Chief, Section on Molecular Neurobiology, NIMH, NIH, Besthesda, MD, “Neuroprotective, neurotrophic and anti-inflammatory actions of mood stabilizers: An update from preclinical studies.”
Jing-Gung Chung – Professor, Department of Biological Science and Technology, China Medical Univ, Taichung, Taiwan, “The molecular mechanism of emodin induced apoptosis in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.”
*Michael Collins – Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Cell Biology and Neurobiology, Loyola Univ, Maywood, IL, “Binge alcohol-induced neurodegeneration: suppression of underlying neuroinflammatory mechanisms by PLA2 inhibitors or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, DHA.”
*Jameel Dennis – Research Fellow, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth Univ, Richmond, VA, “Nucleotide receptor P2Y12R and multiple sclerosis: a novel approach to re-myelination.”
*Anne Eckert – Professor and Head, Neurobiology Lab for Brain Aging and Mental Health, Biomedicine Univ of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, “Role of neurosteroids and oxidative stress in neurodegeneration: basic knowledge and therapeutic perspectives.”
*Gunter Eckert – Professor, Dept Pharmacol, Univ Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, “Regulation of the isoprenoids FPP and GGPP in the brain during aging and in Alzheimer’s disease.”
*Akhlaq A Farooqui – Senior Research Scientist, Dept Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, “Plasmalogen-selective PLA2 in kainic acid neurotoxicity and Alzheimer disease:A tribute to late Lloyd A. Horrocks.”
*Sally A. Frautschy, PhD – Professor of Medicine and Neurology, VA Medical Center, GRECC, UCLA (Sepulveda, CA), “Pleiotropic targets in Alzheimer’s, rationale for use of Curcumin and DHA based on Alzheimer's models.”
*Gary Gibson – Professor of Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Burke Medical Research Institute, White Plains, NY, “Diminished metabolism and/or oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases, a double edged sword?”
*Gianfrancesco Goracci – Professor, Biochemistry Department, Univ Perugia, Perugia, Italy and 2005-present: President of the European Society for Neurochemistry, “Role of low molecular weight phospholipases A2 in brain functions and dysfunctions.”
*Zezong Gu – Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO “Oxidation of the parkin cysteine-rich regions perturbs its E3 ligase activity and contributes to parkin aggregation.”
*XianLin Han – Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, “P2Y2 nucleotide receptors mediate neuroprotective and neuroinflammatory responses. Sulfatide and Alzheimer's Disease.”
*Joe G. Hollyfield – Director, FFB Research Center, Cole Eye Institute -131, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, “A hapten generated from an oxidation fragment of docosahexaenoic acid is sufficient to initiate age-related macular degeneration.”
*Jau-Shyong Hong – Head, Neuropharmacology Section, National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS), NIH, Research Triangle Park, NC, “Role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease.”
*Yi-Shuian Huang – Assistant Research Fellow, IBMS, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, “Is the mitogenic growth factor receptor, EGFR, a plasticity-related protein?”
*Lung-Sen Kao – Professor, Dept. of Life Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, “α-synuclein and Rab3A independently regulate fusion pore dilation of the same population of secretory vesicles in PC12 cells.”
*Eric Klann – Professor, Center for Neural Science, New York Univ, New York, NY, “Preventing aging- and AD-related memory impairments with overexpression of SODs.”
*James C. Lee – Assistant professor, Department of Biological Engineering, Univ Missouri, Columbia, MO, “Membrane Biophysics and Mechanics in Alzheimer’s disease.”
*Yi-Hsuan Lee – Professor, Chairman Department of Physiology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, “Dioxin activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor to regulate NMDA receptor expression and functions in cortical neurons.”
*Teng-nan Lin – Associate Research Fellow/Professor, Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), Academia Sinica, Taipei, “Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-γ) attenuates ischemic brain injury: mechanisms and clinical perspective.”
*Stuart A. Lipton – Professor and Scientific Director, Burham Center for Neuroscience and Aging, and Stem Cell Research, Burham Inst for Med Research, La Jolla, CA, “S-Nitrosylation/Redox Signaling Mediates Protein Misfolding and Mitochondrial Fragmentation in Neurodegenerative Diseases.”
*Lih-Fen Lue – Senior Scientist, Lab Neuroinflammation, Sun Health Res Inst., Sun City, AZ, “Enhancing endogenous soluble receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (sRAGE) as alternative anti-inflammatory treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.”
*Pei-Jung Frank Lu – Associate Professor, Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Cheng-Kung University, School of Medicine, Tainan, Taiwan, “Prolyl Isomerase Pin1: a potential therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s Disease.”
*Walter E. Muller – Professor, Dept Pharmacology, Biocenter Univ Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, “Mitochondrial dysfunction: common domino in brain aging and Alzheimers’s disease. Therapeutical aspects.”
*Wei-Yi Ong – Associate Professor, Dept Anatomy, National University of Singapore, Singapore, “Changes in cholesterol metabolome after excitotoxicity.”
*Alessandro Prinetti – Professor of Bioehemistry, Dept of Medical Chemistry, Univ of Milano, Milan, Italy, “Deregulated sphingolipid metabolism in neurodegenerative disorders: lessons from acidic sphingomyelinase knockout mice, an animal model for Niemann-Pick disease type A.”
*Joanna Strosznajder – Professor of Neurology and Neurochemistry, Head of Dept of Cellular Signaling, Medical Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, “The role of Nitric oxide/cGMP signaling in brain aging and experimental model of Alzheimer disease. The effects of selected novel protectants.”
*Albert Sun – Professor, Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, Univ Missouri, Columbia, MO, “Neuroprotective effects of resveratrol: implication for stroke damage.”
*Grace Sun – Professor, Biochemistry Department, Univ Missouri, Columbia, MO, “Targeting NADPH oxidase and phospholipase A2 as an intervention strategy for suppressing oxidative-degradative responses in AD.”
*Synthia Sun – Professor, Neuroscience Institute, National Yang Ming Univ, Taipei, Taiwan “P2X7 receptor selective antagonists inhibit growth and viability of neuroblastoma and glioblatoma cells.”
*Li-Kai Tsai – PhD, National Institutes of Mental Health, NIH, Washington, DC, “Valproic acid treatment in spinal muscular atrophy.”
*Benjamin Pang-hsien Tu, Assistant Research Fellow, IBMS, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, “The sequence requirement for TARDBP protein to form inclusions.”
*Gary A. Weisman - Professor, Dept Biochem, Univ. Missouri, Columbia, MO, “P2Y2 nucleotide receptors mediate neuroprotective and neuroinflammatory responses.”
*Yau-Huei Wei – Professor, Dept Biochem and Molecular Biology, National Yang Ming Univ, Taipei, Taiwan, “Oxidative stress response elicited by pathogenic mitochondrial DNA mutations: implications in the antioxidant therapy of mitochondrial diseases.”
*W. Gibson Wood – Professor and Associate Director, Pharmacology Department and GRECC, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, “A novel mechanism of statin-induced neuroprotection: Endothelin-1 → NFATc3/4 → Bcl-2.”
*Jang-Yen Wu – Schmidt Senior Fellow and Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science, Boca Raton, FL, “Demonstration of efficacy of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) inParkinson’s disease.”
*Xiao-Ming Xu, MD, PhD – Mari Hulman George Professor of Neurological Surgery, Scientific Director, Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Res Group, Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN “Neuroprotective and regenerative strategies for the repair of spinal cord injury.”
*Shi Du Yan, MD – Professor, Department of Pathology and Surgery, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s disease and Aging Brain, College of Physician and Surgeon, Columbia University, New York, NY, “Genetic deficiency of RAGE protects against Aβ-mediated synaptic and cognitive deficits and reduces Aβ accumulation in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.”
*Albert CH Yu – Professor, Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking Univ, China, “Intrinsic protective proteins: factor to protect us from neural injury.”
*Xiongwei Zhu – Associate Professor, Dept of Pathology, Case Western Reserve Univ, Cleveland, Ohio, “Mitochondrial dynamics as a therapeutic target for AD and PD.”