The 3rd Fusion Conference Targeting Therapy of Alzheimer’s and Related Neurodegenerative Diseases was held from May 7 to 10, 2025 in Avra Imperial Hotel, Crete.  A total of 64 attendee were from three continents (Asia, Europe and North America) including countries such as Canada, China, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, United States.  The focus of the conference is on presenting novel findings or most recent discoveries that are geared toward either treatment and biomarker developments for Alzheimer’s diseases or related neurodegenerative diseases (ADRD).  One of the most recognizable and admired aspects of this conference is that early career scientists such as students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty have had ample opportunities to engage in scientific discussions or conversations with speakers and other attendees in various occasions, as well as to present their own research work.  Three poster presenters were chosen for receiving EMBO Molecular Medicine and BrightFocus Presentation Awards.  Absea Biotechnology and BrightFocus provided generous support for this conference.  In addition, our attendees enjoyed a highly appreciated opportunity to meet editors from Science Translational Medicine and Nature both in one-on-one and in group settings.

In this conference, speakers presented their findings in the area of cell based therapy including xenotransplantation, neuroinflammation or neuroimmune interactions due to peripheral or central immune responses, biomolecular condensate and phase separation of intrinsically disordered proteins in ALS and FTD, structural and genetic basis of pathologies, therapeutic exploration of  small molecules, antibody, non-coding RNAome or small peptides, factors associated with vulnerability and resilience,  lipidomic or metabolic abnormality in AD, functional and genetic insights of ApoE in AD pathogenesis,  etc.  Most presenters reported not yet published studies that applied various cutting-edge technologies or unbiased multi-omics including glycoproteomics, spatial multi-omic architecture, chromatin accessibility mapping, single cell atlas to answer not only pathological questions but also therapeutic intervention.  The brain shuttling technology for drug delivery cross blood-brain barrier is novel and expected to have a broad application for ADRD treatment.   Fluorescence-guided in tissue cryo-electron tomographic approach has been powerful in revealing pathological features in AD brains, and can be easily extended to many other neurodegenerative disease study.  While most topics are related to AD, several investigators presented studies in the area of α-synucleinoathy,  Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and Purkinje cell degeneration in neuronal intraneuclear inclusion disease.  Unlike a large conference, attendee appreciate the active discussions and sessions with high quality stimulating presentations.  Many attendees express the hope for another Fusion Conference on ADRD in two years.  We are looking forward to organizing the 4th Fusion Conference on ADRD in 2027.

Riqiang Yan (University of Connecticut School of Medicine)
Peter St. George-Hyslop (Columbia University)
Li-Huei Tsai (MIT)
 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common age-dependent neurodegenerative disease, affecting nearly 1 in 9 people over 65 in the world.  While a great progress in translational and discovery research is excitingly being made, there still lack effective therapies for AD and related neurodegenerative diseases.  This planned conference intends to bring together leading scientists and clinicians from all over the world to present their unpublished observations or findings to attendees, and to share their vision or prospects on translational or discovery research. We expect that some presenters, either by talks or posters, will discuss our current state of knowledge in disease mechanisms, novel targets, new genetic association or pathways, approaches for identifying new therapeutic targets, and biomarkers for diagnosis or treatment readouts. We will also invite speakers who are conducting later stages of drug discoveries to share clinical trial results. 

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Mathew Blurton-Jones (University of California, Irvine)
HARNESSING STEM CELL DERIVED MICROGLIA FOR BRAIN-WIDE DELIVERY OF THERAPEUTIC PROTEINS
Guojun Bu (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
PATHOBIOLOGY AND THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES AGAINST APOE IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Karen Duff (University College London)
TAUOPATHY MECHANISMS IN FTD AND AD
André Fischer (German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases)
EXPANDING THE SPACE FOR DRUG DISCOVERY AND TRANSLATION: THE NON-CODING RNAOME IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES
René Frank (University of Leeds)
PROTEIN STRUCTURE WITHIN POSTMORTEM AD BRAIN BY FLUORESCENCE-GUIDED, IN-TISSUE CRYO-ELECTRON TOMOGRAPHY
Li Gan (Weill Cornell Medicine)
NEUROIMMUNE INTERACTIONS IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES
Michelle Gee (Eisai)
LECANEMAB DRUG DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY AD: PATH TO APPROVAL AND POTENTIAL BEYOND INITIAL INDICATION
Christian Haass (Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich)
MODULATION OF TREM2 ACTIVITY BY AN AGONISTIC ANTIBODY
Michael Heneka (University of Luxembourg)
MICROGLIA CELL FATE IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Joachim Herz (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
ApoE IN NEURONS AND MUTANT ApoE
David Holtzman (Washington University in St. Louis)
ROLE OF ApoE AND THE INNATE AND ADAPTIVE IMMUNE RESPONSE IN THE PRESENCE OF ALZHEIMER’S-LIKE PATHOLOGIES
Yadong Huang (Gladstone Institutes, University of California San Francisco)
NEURONAL ApoE4 TOXICITY IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Celeste Karch (Washington University in St. Louis)
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE NEURO-IMMUNE AXIS IN ALZHEIMER DISEASE RESILIENCE
Yueming Li (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
IFITM3 MODULATES MICROGLIA STATUS IN AD
Richard Mayeux (Columbia University)
THE PATHOGENIC ROLES OF APOE IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND POTENTIAL THERAPEUTIC STRATEGIES
Inhee Mook-Jung (Seoul National University)
GUT-VAGUS NERVE-BRAIN AXIS IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE PATHOGENESIS
Junmin Peng (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital)
PAN-NEURODEGENERATION PROTEOMICS: NEW INSIGHTS FROM 2000 HUMAN CASES AND MOUSE MODELS
Panos Roussos (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
SINGLE-CELL ATLAS OF TRANSCRIPTOMIC VULNERABILITY ACROSS MULTIPLE NEURODEGENERATIVE AND NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISEASES
Michal Schwartz (Weizmann Institute of Science)
THE BRAIN-IMMUNE ECOSYSTEM: TARGETING INHIBITORY IMMUNE CHECKPOINTS TO HARNESS INNATE AND ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY TO DEFEAT ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Gopal Thinakaran (University of South Florida)
BIN1 RISK IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: UNPACKING THE COMPLEX MECHANISMS, ONE BIN AT A TIME
Taisuke Tomita (University of Tokyo)
TARGETING NEUROINFLAMMATORY RESPONSE FOR ACCELERATED AMYLOID CLEARANCE IN ALZHEIMER DISEASE
Matheus Victor (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
SINGLE-CELL CORRELATES OF PSYCHOSIS IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Roberto Villaseñor (Roche Pharma Research and Early Development)
OVERCOMING THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER FOR THERAPEUTIC DELIVERY WITH BRAINSHUTTLE TECHNOLOGY
Tracy Young-Pearse (Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School)
LEVERAGING A LARGE COHORT OF IPSC LINE FOR UNCOVERING MECHANISMS UNDERLYING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Hui Zheng (Baylor College of Medicine)
GLIAL CELL-SURFACE PROTEINS IN AD

Key Sessions

•    The latest on AD genetics 
•    Peripheral and central immune response
•    Multiomic dissection of AD
•    Vulnerability and resilience
•    Lipid and metabolic abnormalities in AD pathogenesis
•    Novel therapeutic targets
•    New Biomarkers 
•    AI or machine learning-based drug discovery
•    Insights from molecular structures 
•    Brain imaging of AD brains

The significance of having this conference is to provide a unique forum for the research community focusing on translational studies geared towards therapies in AD and related neurodegenerative diseases to come together to discuss the latest advances and the future challenges in the field.  

Target Audience

The conference is essentially open to various levels of investigators including senior, mid career and early career investigators, either in academic or industrial or clinical institutes.  There will be ample opportunities for attendee to have close interactions networking and freely scientific discussions. We anticipate international representation from the US, Europe, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, and others.

Educational Need

Junior investigators such as graduate students or postdoctoral fellows as well as physician scientists are expected to gain knowledge on the most current therapeutic strategies in AD and the related field.  The conference will also be of interest to clinical practioners seeking updates on what developments are underway in the therapeutic pipeline for AD and the scientific basis of this research pathway.

We are please to announce we have 10 x €500 Early Career Researcher Grants available, kindly supported by BrightFocus Foundation.

To be considered, please email Rosie with:

• An abstract for short talk or poster consideration
• A short statement as to why you would benefit from attending the meeting

Applications must be submitted by 13 March 2025