Bio
Dr. Isabel Lastres-Becker has more than 20 years of experience in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. The study of neurodegenerative diseases has been at the focus from the beginning of her doctoral thesis and until now, the thread that has guided her entire scientific career. Her work is focused on the molecular bases of neurodegeneration related to proteinopathy, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress. She is the head of the laboratory of “New therapeutic strategies in neurodegenerative diseases: Parkinson's disease (PD), tauopathies and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)”. The research projects she has developed have a multidisciplinary approach that combines basic and translational research, using cell culture techniques, murine models (transgenic mice and adeno-associated viral vectors), and postmortem samples from patients with AD, PD, and ALS. She is engaged in the development of advanced biological markers, new drugs, and appropriate technology toward establishing treatments for those diseases.

Bio
Dr. Antonio Cuadrado is full professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Department of Biochemistry, Medical School, Autonomous University of Madrid. He studies the molecular mechanisms involved in initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. For the past years his main lane of research has been the validation of transcription factor NRF2, master regulator of cellular homeostasis, with four main lines of activity: i) The transcription factor NRF2 as a new therapeutic target in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. ii) Role of oxidative stress in neuronal death and neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases. iii) Pharmacological regulation of autophagy in the brain as a novel therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative proteinopathies. iv) Development of new NRF2-modulating drugs. Dr. Cuadrado is Chair of COST Action CA20121 on “Bench to bedside transition for pharmacological regulation of NRF2 in noncommunicable diseases; BenBedPhar”.

Bio
Dr. Albena Dinkova-Kostova graduated in Biochemistry and Microbiology from Sofia University (Bulgaria) and obtained her PhD degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Washington State University (USA). She subsequently trained in Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (USA), where she continues to hold an Adjunct Professor position. She joined the University of Dundee in 2007 as a Research Councils UK Academic Fellow, and is now Professor of Chemical Biology. Her group collaborates with basic scientists and clinicians and with the pharmaceutical industry. In her research, at the interface of Chemical Biology and Medicine, she is committed to understanding how cells and organisms respond to oxidative, inflammatory, and metabolic stress, and is working towards development of strategies for protection against chronic disease. She is named among the top influential academics in Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2019, 2020, and 2021 lists.

Bio
Professor Giles Hardingham FRSE FMedsci studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge before completing a PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. He established his laboratory at the University of Edinburgh in 2002 as a Royal Society University Research Fellow, moving onto a MRC Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellowship in 2010. He currently holds the City of Edinburgh Chair of Pharmacology and is Director of the Edinburgh Centre of the UK Dementia Research Institute. His research is focussed on understanding signaling within and between cells in the brain. His aim is to characterise the inter-cellular interactions that maintain brain homeostasis when we are healthy, and how these mechanisms break down in diseases that cause dementia.