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Professor John Hardy is a geneticist and molecular biologist whose research interests focus on neurological disease. Dr. Hardy received his B.Sc. (Hons) degree from the University of Leeds, UK (1976) and his Ph.D. from Imperial College, London, UK where he studied dopamine and amino acid neuropharmacology. Dr. Hardy received his postdoctoral training at the MRC Neuropathogenesis Unit in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and then further postdoctoral work at the Swedish Brain Bank in Umeå, Sweden where he started to work on Alzheimer’s disease.

He became Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at St. Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College, London in 1985 and initiated genetic studies of Alzheimer’s disease whilst there. He was appointed Associate Professor in 1989 and then took the Pfeiffer Endowed Chair of Alzheimer’s Research at the University of South Florida, in Tampa in 1992. In 1996 he moved to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, as Consultant and Professor of Neuroscience. He became Chair of Neuroscience in 2000 and moved to NIA as Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics in 2001. He won the MetLife, the Allied Signal and the Potamkin Prize for his work in describing the first genetic mutations, in the amyloid gene in Alzheimer’s disease, in 1991. From 2001 to 2007, he was Head of the Neurogenetics Section, National Institute of Ageing, Bethesda, USA.

In 2007, he took up the Chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at the UCL Institute of Neurology. With over 23,000 citations, Prof Hardy is the most cited Alzheimer’s disease researcher in the UK (5th internationally). In recognition of his exceptional contributions to science, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2009.

Honours and Awards

  • 1991 Peter Debje Prize, University of Limburg, Belgium, For Alzheimer’s Research
  • 1992 IPSEN Prize for Research into Alzheimer’s Disease
  • 1993 Potamkin Prize (American Academy of Neurology) for Alzheimer’s Research
  • 1995 Allied Signal Prize for Research into Aging
  • 1995 MetLife Prize for Research into Alzheimer’s disease
  • 2002 Kaul Prize for Research into Alzheimer’s disease
  • 2008 Anne Marie Oprecht International Prize for Research in Parkinson’s Disease
  • 2008 Elected to membership of the Academy of Medical Sciences
  • 2008 Honorary MD, University of Umea, Sweden
  • 2009 Elected to the Royal Society

Scientific publications

  1. Van Deerlin VM, Sleiman PMA, Martinez-Lage M, et al. Common variants at 7p21 are associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP43 inclusions Nature Genetics 2010; 42: 234-U34.
  2. Harold D, Abraham R, Hollingworth P, et al. Genome-wide association study identifies variants at CLU and PICALM associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Nature Genetics 2009;41:088-U61.
  3. Simon-Sanchez J, Schulte C, Bras JM; et al. Genome-wide association study reveals genetic risk underlying Parkinson’s disease. Nature Genetics 2009;41:1308-U68.
  4. Hardy J, Singleton A. Genomewide Association Studies and Human Disease. New England Journal of Medicine 2009;360:1759-1768.
  5. Nalls MA, Guerreiro RJ, Simon-Sanchez J, Bras JT, Traynor BJ, Gibbs JR, Launer L, Hardy J, Singleton AB. Extended tracts of homozygosity identify novel candidate genes associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Neurogenetics. 2009;10:183-90.
  6. Zody MC, Jiang Z, Fung HC, et al. Evolutionary toggling of the MAPT 17q21.31 inversion region. Nature Genetics 2008;40:1076-1083.
  7. Jakobsson M, Scholz SW, Scheet P, et al. Genotype, haplotype and copy-number variation in worldwide human populations Nature 2008;451:998-1003.
  8. Matarin M, Simon-Sanchez J, Fung HC, et al. Structural genomic variation in ischemic stroke. Neurogenetics 2008;9:101-108.
  9. Myers AJ, Gibbs R, Webster J, Rohrer K, Zhao A, Marlowe L, Kaleem M, Leung D, Bryden L, Nath P, Zismann VL, Joshipura K, Huentelman MJ, Hu- Lince D, Coon KD, Craig DW, Pearson JV, Holmans P, Heward CB, Reiman EM, Stephan D, Hardy J. A survey of genetic cortical gene expression. Nature Genetics 2007;39:1494-9.
  10. Reiman EM, Webster JA, Myers AJ, Hardy J, Dunckley T, Zismann VL, Joshipura KD, Pearson JV, Hu-Lince D, Huentelman MJ, Craig DW, Coon KD, Liang WS, Herbert RH, Beach T, Rohrer KC, Zhao AS, Leung D, Bryden L, Marlowe L, Kaleem M, Mastroeni D, Grover A, Heward CB, Ravid R, Rogers J, Hutton ML, Melquist S, Petersen RC, Alexander GE, Caselli RJ, Kukull W, Papassotiropoulos A, Stephan DA. GAB2 alleles modify Alzheimer’s risk in APOE epsilon4 carriers. Neuron. 2007;54:713-20.

SAB Chairperson.

Thomas Gasser is a Professor of Neurology and Director of the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Center of Neurology at the University of Tübingen and Speaker of the German Center for Neurodegenerative diseases in Tübingen. Prof. Gasser studied medicine at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and at Yale University Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut. He received his professional training in psychiatry at the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, and in neurology at the Department of Neurology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. From 1991 to 1993 he trained as a post-doctoral fellow with a stipend of the German Research Foundation at the Neuroscience Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, in the laboratory of Prof. Xandra Breakefield. He returned to Munich to become Assistant Professor in neurology and Head of the Neurogenetics Unit as well as the Movement Disorders Outpatient Unit at the Department of Neurology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University. Prof. Gasser’s main areas of research are the genetic and molecular basis of Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and other movement disorders, as well as their diagnosis and treatment. His work is primarily focused on the identification of genes and loci that are involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease, and the analysis of the functional consequences of variations in the identified genes. These studies serve to identify drug targets and biomarkers for disease risk and progression. He conducted over 10 clinical trials according to GCP-criteria on the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and dystonia since 1995. In 1998, Prof. Gasser received the Parkinson’s disease Award by the German Society of Neurology. He is author and co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers and about 100 reviews and book contributions and was awarded several prestigious research grants. Currently, he is coordinator of the Parkinson-network in the National Genome Network plus, which comprises 16 individual projects. Prof. Gasser serves as President of the German Society of Neurogenetics and Chairman of the study group Neurogenetics of the German Society of Neurology. He is a past Editor of the Newsletter of the Movement Disorders Society and member of several editorial boards.

Honours and Awards

  • 1985 Goedecke Research Award
  • 1998 Parkinson-Award of the German Neurologic Society

Main publications

  1. Zimprich A, Grabowski M, Asmus F, Naumann M, Berg D, Bertram M, Scheidtmann K, Kern P, Winkelmann J, Muller-Myhsok B, Riedel L, Bauer M, Muller T, Castro M, Meitinger T, Strom TM, Gasser T. Mutations in the gene encoding epsilon-sarcoglycan cause myoclonus-dystonia syndrome. NatGenet. 2001 9/2001;29(1):66-9.
  2. Zimprich A, Biskup S, Leitner P, Lichtner P, Farrer M, Lincoln S, Kachergus J, Hulihan M, Uitti RJ, Calne DB, Stoessl AJ, Pfeiffer RF, Patenge N, Carbajal IC, Vieregge P, Asmus F, Muller-Myhsok B, Dickson DW, Meitinger T, Strom TM, Wszolek ZK, Gasser T. Mutations in LRRK2 Cause Autosomal-Dominant Parkinsonism with Pleomorphic Pathology. Neuron. 2004 Nov 18;44(4):601-7.
  3. Mueller JC, Fuchs J, Hofer A, Zimprich A, Lichtner P, Illig T, Berg D, Wullner U, Meitinger T, Gasser T. Multiple regions of alpha-synuclein are associated with Parkinson’s disease. Ann Neurol. 2005 Mar 22;57(4):535-41.
  4. Scholz SW, Houlden H, Schulte C, Sharma M, Li A, Berg D, Melchers A, Paudel R, Gibbs JR, Simon-Sanchez J, Paisan-Ruiz C, Bras J, Ding J, Chen H, Traynor BJ, Arepalli S, Zonozi RR, Revesz T, Holton J, Wood N, Lees A, Oertel W, Wullner U, Goldwurm S, Pellecchia MT, Illig T, Riess O, Fernandez HH, Rodriguez RL, Okun MS, Poewe W, Wenning GK, Hardy JA, Singleton AB, Gasser T. SNCA variants are associated with increased risk for multiple system atrophy. Ann Neurol. 2009 Mar 18;65(5):610-4.
  5. Simon-Sanchez J, Schulte C, Bras JM, Sharma M, Gibbs JR, Berg D, Paisan-Ruiz C, Lichtner P, Scholz SW, Hernandez DG, Kruger R, Federoff M, Klein C, Goate A, Perlmutter J, Bonin M, Nalls MA, Illig T, Gieger C, Houlden H, Steffens M, Okun MS, Racette BA, Cookson MR, Foote KD, Fernandez HH, Traynor BJ, Schreiber S, Arepalli S, Zonozi R, Gwinn K, van der Brug M, Lopez G, Chanock SJ, Schatzkin A, Park Y, Hollenbeck A, Gao J, Huang X, Wood NW, Lorenz D, Deuschl G, Chen H, Riess O, Hardy JA, Singleton AB, Gasser T. Genome-wide association study reveals genetic risk underlying Parkinson’s disease. Nat Genet. 2009 Dec;41(12):1308-12.

Bruno Dubois is currently Professor of Neurology at the Neurological Institute of the Salpétrière University Hospital at Paris, University Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6. He is Director of the Behavioural Neurology Department and of the Dementia Research Center at the Hospital. He is also Director of the Research Unit Inserm U-610 of the ICM (Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière) of the Hospital. He is coordinator of the National Reference Center on “Rare Dementias” and of the National Reference Center for “young-onset Alzheimer patients”. He is President of the Scientific Committee of France-Alzheimer and of IFRAD (International Fund Raising for Alzheimer’s disease), consultant for the Human Frontier Program and Expert of the French Agency of Drugs. He is a member of the European Alzheimer Disease Consortium (EADC). He has published on anatomical and biochemical studies on the central cholinergic systems in rodents and humans; on cognitive neuropharmacology; and on neuropsychology in patients with dementia, with special reference to memory and executive functions. He recently organized an Expert Consensus on the new criteria for Alzheimer’s disease and a Task Force on the new criteria for Parkinson’s disease dementia. He is principal or co-investigator of a number of research programs focusing on AD, prodromal AD and dementia in Parkinson’s disease.

Scientific publications

  1. Thiebaut de Schotten M, Urbanski M, Duffau H., Volle E, Levy R, Dubois B, Bartolomeo P. Direct evidence for a parietal-frontal pathway subserving spatial awareness in humans. Science. 2005 Sep 30; 309(5744):2226-8.
  2. Pochon JB, Levy R, Fossati P, Lehericy S, Poline JB, Pillon B, Lebihan D, Dubois B. The neural system that bridges reward and cognition in humans: An fMRI study. PNAS, 2002, 99:5669-5674.
  3. Dubois B, Albert ML. Amnestic MCI or prodromal Alzheimer’s disease? Lancet Neurol. 2004 Apr;3(4):246-8
  4. Le Ber I, Guedj E, Gabelle A, Verpillat P, Volteau M, Thomas-Anterion C, Decousus M, Hannequin D, Vera P, Lacomblez L, Camuzat A, Didic M, Puel M, Lotterie JA, Golfier V, Bernard AM, Vercelletto M, Magne C, Sellal F, Namer I, Michel BF, Pasquier J, Salachas F, Bochet J, French Research network on FTD/FTD-MND, Brice A, Habert MO, Dubois B. Demographic, neurological and behavioural characteristics and brain perfusion SPECT in frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia. Brain, 2006 Nov; 129(Pt 11): 3051-65
  5. Dubois B, Feldman H, Jacova C, DeKosky ST, Barberger-Gateau P, Cummings J, Delacourte A, Galasko D, Gauthier S, Jicha G, Meguro K, O’Brien J, Pasquier F, Robert P, Rossor M, Salloway S, Stern Y, Visser PJ., Scheltens P. Research criteria for the Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: revising of the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Lancet Neurol. 2007 Aug; 6(8):734-46.