Deborah Gustafson, PhD MS, is a Professor at the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University (SUNY DHSU), Department of Neurology, Director of NeuroEpidemiology and a guest professor at the University of Gothenburg and University of Skövde, Sweden.

Prof Gustafson is a Principal Investigator of the Brooklyn site of the NIH-funded, multicenter MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (mwccs.org), for which she co-chairs the Aging Working Group and leads efforts in assessments of cognition and frailty.

Dr. Gustafson has researched the epidemiology of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) for 30 years with over 200 peer-reviewed or invited publications. She is an Associate Editor for Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association; legacy Chair of the Vascular Cognitive Disorders Professional Interest Area (VPIA) for the Alzheimer’s Association; American Academy of Neurology, Neurology in the Clinic session chair; and member of the New York City Regional Obesity Forum (NYCROF).

Deborah received her educational training from the University of Minnesota (PhD, MS and BA), held an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in Genetic Epidemiology, and had a mid-career research award from the Swedish Research Council. She attained docentur at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Atticus Hainsworth

Reader in Cerebrovascular Disease

Atticus Hainsworth is Reader in Cerebrovascular Disease at St George’s University of London.

Atticus is an expert in cerebral small vessel disease, which is a major cause of vascular cognitive impairment. He was chief investigator on a phase-II clinical trial (PASTIS) testing the PDE5i drug tadalafil for possible repurposing in vascular dementia. His group has recently published on a large neuropathology study of collagen-IV. He is currently studying microvascular effects of endothelin-1 in a large animal model, iET1 transgenic pigs.

Atticus is a past Chair of the Vascular PIA, within ISTAART, and he currently leads the Vascular Experimental Medicine theme in Dementias Platform UK (DPUK). He serves as Deputy Editor in Chief of the VasCog house journal, CCCB.

Atticus has a LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atticus-hainsworth-26650039/

Frank J. Wolters

assistant professor of neuro-epidemiology

Frank J. Wolters (MD PhD) is assistant professor of neuro-epidemiology at the departments of Epidemiology and Radiology & Nuclear Medicine at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Trained at Oxford, Rotterdam, and Harvard, he developed expertise in research methodology, applied notably to the prevention of cerebrovascular disease and dementia in clinical studies as well as large-scale datasets. Dr Wolters leads the nationwide BIRD-NL consortium on dementia prevention in the Netherlands, and is a co-investigator on various national and international initiatives including the Cross-Cohort Collaboration, Dementia Risk Prediction Project, and the Heart-Brain Connection collaborative research group. He is associate editor for the European Journal of Epidemiology and member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Stroke. His work is supported amongst others by a prestigious personal research grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO Veni).

Assistant Professor of Neuroepidemiology

Anna Marseglia is an Assistant Professor at Karolinska Institutet in the NVS Department, Division of Clinical Geriatrics and Research Collaborator at Mayo Clinic-Rochester. With a background in neuropsychology (B.Sc., M.Sc., Licensed) and a Ph.D. in aging epidemiology, Dr Marseglia brings a uniquely combination of skills to investigate the risk and protective factors for Vascular Cognitive Impairment and dementia (VCID).

Her primary research interests center on identifying risk and protective factors for cognitive disorders associated with cerebrovascular disease, particularly small vessel pathology, and elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms. Her work also explores key determinants of brain maintenance and cognitive reserve in VCID, with a special focus on factors relevant to women’s health. Her research integrates multidimensional data from both population- and clinical-based cohorts as well as intervention studies.

Dr. Marseglia’s research is supported by high-profile grants in aging and dementia, including funding from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE), the Center for Innovative Medicine (CIMED), the Swedish Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro), the Collaboratory on Research Definitions for Cognitive Reserve and Resilience, and various private foundations. Beyond her research and teaching roles, Dr. Marseglia is involved in several national (e.g., Gothenburg University, Center for Alzheimer Research, Umeå University) & international collaborations (e.g., Mayo Clinic, Rush University Medical Center, Health Research Institute La Fe-Spain, European SHARED consortium).

Institutional profile page: Anna Marseglia | Karolinska Institutet

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Audrey Low

Research Fellow & Young Investigators Representative

Audrey is a Race Against Dementia Fellow jointly at the University of Cambridge and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota USA). She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2022, funded by the Lee Kuan Yew Fitzwilliam PhD Scholarship. Audrey was the recipient of the 2023 ‘Rising Star Award’ from the Alzheimer’s Society (UK) and was awarded the NUS Development Grant from the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she holds the position of Young NUS Fellow. Her research interest lies in understanding the role of cerebrovascular dysfunction in dementia using multimodal neuroimaging techniques, fluid biomarkers, and clinical data in humans. In particular, her work focuses on identifying early biomarkers, and factors involved in risk and resilience towards dementia. Most recently, her research looks at the associations and interplay between cerebral small vessel disease, inflammation, and blood brain barrier permeability, and specifically the role of perivascular spaces. A strong advocate for dementia prevention, Audrey also actively organises and participates in public engagement events to improve the public’s understanding of dementia and fundraises for dementia research through pottery and half-marathons. Academic profile: https://audreylwn.github.io/

PHD Student & Young Investigators Representative

Dr. Smith is the Medical Director of the Cognitive Neurosciences Clinic and a member of the Calgary Stroke Program. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary, and the inaugural holder of the Kathy Taylor Chair in Vascular Dementia.  

He obtained his MD degree from McGill University and completed his neurology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Smith’s research program investigates the risk factors and consequences of diseases of the cerebral microcirculation, with the goal of improving the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of vascular contributions to cognitive decline and vascular dementia. His research work has been funded by Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Alzheimer Society of Canada and the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He has received the Robert G. Siekert Award from the American Heart Association for his research work. He is an Assistant Editor for Stroke and is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Neurology. Dr. Smith sees patients in the Cognitive Neurosciences Clinic and the Stroke Prevention Clinic.

Saima Hilal

Assistant Professor of Neurology

Dr. Saima Hilal is currently an Assistant Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. Trained in epidemiology (MPH) and neurology (MD, PhD), she possesses the ideal combination to explore the aging process of the healthy brain, the development of cerebrovascular disease and neurodegeneration, and the methodologies for studying these processes using brain imaging.

Her primary expertise lies in neuroimaging, epidemiology, plasma-based biomarkers, and cognition in the context of Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and related disorders. Dr. Hilal’s research focuses on investigating both vascular and neurodegenerative causes of cognitive impairment in both community and hospital-based settings.

She leads two population-based studies: the Neurological Biomarkers of Blood, MRI, and Cognition (NEURO-BMC) study and the Multidimensional Healthy Aging in Population-based study in Singapore. Dr. Hilal has been awarded a Transition Award from NMRC, setting her on a path toward a Clinician Scientist career. Her dedicated passion for neuro-epidemiology and biomarkers of aging research has yielded prolific output, with over 200 publications, including lead authorships in prestigious journals such as JAMA Neurology, Stroke, Alzheimer’s and Dementia, Neurology, Brain, and the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

Annemieke ter Telgte

PhD, postdoctoral researcher

Annemieke ter Telgte is postdoc at VASCage in Innsbruck, Austria. In her work she focuses on cerebral small vessel disease and small acute brain infarcts. She conducted her PhD at Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Frank-Erik de Leeuw and Prof. Dr. Marco Duering. During her PhD, she designed and conducted the RUN DMC – InTENse study, a serial MRI study on small acute brain infarcts. She was visiting scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where she studied small brain infarcts microscopically. Annemieke is member of STRIVE-2. For VasCog 2023, Annemieke was member of the Scientific Committee.