TEN RESEARCHERS HONORED AT ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

TORONTO, July 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alzheimer's Association^® will present 10 scientific awards at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference^® 2025 (AAIC^®), recognizing researchers for their expertise, noteworthy achievements and innovative contributions to the field of Alzheimer's disease and dementia science.

"The Alzheimer's Association envisions a world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia, and these leaders awarded today are helping us make that vision a reality," said Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association chief science officer and medical affairs lead. "The scientific leaders and innovators we recognize at AAIC 2025 are exploring new frontiers in research, medicine and care. We thank them for their impressive accomplishments and insights, and their dedication to the cause."

AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards

The AAIC Lifetime Achievement Awards are named in honor of Henry Wisniewski, M.D., Ph.D.; Khalid Iqbal, Ph.D.; and Bengt Winblad, M.D., Ph.D. — co-founders of the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, now known as the Alzheimer's Association International Conference. These awards honor significant contributions to Alzheimer's and dementia research, either through a single scientific discovery or a body of work.

Bart de Strooper, M.D., Ph.D., is the recipient of the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a professor in dementia research at KU Leuven in Belgium, and the founding director of the UK Dementia Research Institute. De Strooper is internationally recognized for his pioneering research into the mechanisms underlying Alzheimer's disease. De Strooper's more recent research has focused on how amyloid plaques provoke a pathological multicellular neuroinflammatory response, with microglia and astrocytes as key drivers.

Bart de Strooper earned his medical degree in 1985 and earned a Ph.D. in 1992 at KU Leuven. After postdoctoral work at EMBL with Carlos Dotti, he launched his own lab in Leuven in 1998 and became full professor in 2002. He was director of the VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research from 2007-2017, founding it as a world-leading research center. From 2017 to 2023, he was the founding director of the UK Dementia Research Institute. Since 2023, he has split his time between London's Francis Crick Institute and his lab in Leuven.

De Strooper has received numerous honors, including the Zenith Fellows award from the Alzheimer's Association in 2017 and the Brain Prize in 2018. He holds more than 20 patents, founded two biotech companies and is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of Alzheimer's researchers.

Clifford R. Jack Jr., M.D., is the recipient of the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award. Jack is professor of radiology, specializing in neuroradiology, and the Alexander Family Professor of Alzheimer's Disease Research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in the United States. As a global expert in this space, his Aging and Dementia Imaging Research lab is engaged in brain imaging research in cognitive aging and Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The lab's goals are to understand how various imaging measures relate to neuropathology; fluid biomarkers; genetics; psychometric; and cognitive and behavioral phenotypes. The group also serves as the Magnetic Resonance Imaging center for large multi-site observational and interventional studies.

He is world renowned for influential criteria and frameworks that are fundamental to our current understanding of neurodegenerative disease. His work, alongside experts in the field, has integrated objective hallmarks of neurodegenerative disease biology and clinical disease staging.

Mary Sano, Ph.D., is the recipient of the Bengt Winblad Lifetime Achievement Award. Sano is a professor of psychiatry and the director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Sano is a neuropsychologist by training and an award-winning clinical trialist, focusing on cognitive impairment in aging, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Her work has focused on understanding the cognitive consequences of disease and on discovery of interventions to improve cognition.

She has also made major contributions to the understanding of the behavioral and psychiatric conditions that co-occur with cognitive impairment and dementia, and designing trials to improve these conditions. She has pioneered in-home assessment using technologies which permit large-scale prevention trials to occur remotely, increasing the opportunity for research participation across populations. With colleagues at Mount Sinai, she contributed to the establishment of the first memory clinic in a public hospital in Mumbai, India.

Sano has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and mentored more than 100 young scientists and clinicians. She was an inaugural member of the Alzheimer's Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Group, and has held leadership roles in national and international organizations committed to the care of older persons with dementia.

Bill Thies Award

The Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service to ISTAART (the International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment) recognizes a Society member who has provided continued and outstanding service and mentorship to the ISTAART community. The award honors William (Bill) Thies, Ph.D., who passed away in August 2020. During his tenure from 1998 to 2020 as the Alzheimer's Association chief medical and scientific officer, and then as senior medical science advisor, Thies was instrumental in bringing AAIC under the Association's management. He launched the peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer's & Dementia^®: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association and the Alzheimer's Association Research Roundtable.

Donna M. Wilcock, Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2025 Bill Thies Award for Distinguished Service to ISTAART. She is professor of neurology and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders at Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine and IU Health. She is also the Barbara and Larry Sharp Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research, a member of Stark Neurosciences Research Institute and leads the Biomarker Core for the Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Wilcock's research focuses on the intersection of Alzheimer's disease, vascular cognitive impairment, and dementia. Using mouse models and patient samples, Wilcock is exploring the role of neuroinflammation and dysregulated angiogenesis in VCID. More recently, she has focused efforts on understanding ARIA and identifying potential mechanisms for amelioration of ARIA. She is committed to the mentoring and advancement of junior scientists in the field. Her work is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Alzheimer's Association and Brightfocus Foundation.

Wilcock served on the ISTAART Advisory Council (IAC) from 2016 — a committee of international experts who drive ISTAART's scientific vision — and subsequently chaired the IAC from 2020-2022. During her tenure, she championed the support and development of the next generation of dementia scientists through ISTAART's initiatives. Her steadfast dedication to mentoring and advancing junior scientists has continued into her current role as the editor-in-chief of Alzheimer's & Dementia®: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Inge-Grundke-Iqbal Award

Katrin Andreasson, M.D., is this year's recipient of the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer's Research. This award is presented to the senior author of the most impactful study published in Alzheimer's research during the two calendar years preceding AAIC. Her paper, "Restoring hippocampal glucose metabolism rescues cognition across Alzheimer's disease pathologies," was published in Science in August 2024.

Andreasson is a physician-scientist and the Edward F. and Irene Thiele Pimley Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Andreasson received her M.D. degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and completed her residency in neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She then carried out postdoctoral training in the Johns Hopkins Department of Neuroscience with Dr. Paul Worley, where she began her research on mechanisms of immune-mediated brain injury. From initial work on the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inflammatory prostaglandin pathways, her lab has identified immune pathways that promote neurotoxic responses and neurodegeneration in models of aging, Alzheimer's disease and stroke. Immune effector pathways currently under investigation as potential disease modifiers include the PGE2 EP2 receptor, the kynurenine pathway and the TREM1 pathway. Recent studies demonstrate a critical role of these pathways in cellular metabolism and in regulating neuronal function in aging and neurodegeneration.

Zaven Khachaturian Award

Named in honor of noted scientist, administrator, consultant, lecturer and author, Zaven Khachaturian, Ph.D., this award recognizes an individual whose compelling vision, selfless dedication and extraordinary achievement has significantly advanced the field of Alzheimer's science. Khachaturian is universally recognized as the chief architect of Alzheimer's research in the United States. Prior to leaving federal service, he served as the director of the Office of Alzheimer's Disease Research and coordinated all Alzheimer's disease-related activities at the National Institutes of Health.

Bruce Lamb, Ph.D., is the 2025 recipient of the Zaven Khachaturian Award. He is an Indiana University Distinguished Professor, Roberts Family Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research, executive director of the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and co-director of the Neuroscience Institute at Indiana University Health. Lamb obtained his bachelor degree from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, Lamb started his academic career at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. In 2016, Lamb moved to Indianapolis to lead neuroscience research at Indiana University School of Medicine. Lamb is a basic and translational scientist with a focus on animal models of Alzheimer's disease and preclinical therapeutic testing, including his leadership roles on the NIA-funded Indiana University/Jackson Laboratory/University of Pittsburgh Model Organism Development and Evaluation for Late-onset Alzheimer's Disease (MODEL-AD) Center and the IUSM/Purdue Target Enablement to Accelerate Therapy Development for Alzheimer's Disease (TREAT-AD) Center.

In particular, Lamb's laboratory has focused on: 1) genetic modifiers identified from both mouse and human studies, 2) microglia and neuronal-microglial communication in the development and progression of AD pathologies, and 3) identification and characterization of novel microglial targets for therapeutic development. Lamb is a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a past recipient of the Alzheimer's Association Zenith Fellows Award. In addition, in 2023 Lamb received the Augustus M. Watanabe Life Science Champion of the Year award for his leadership role in Alzheimer's research within the state of Indiana.

Dr. Lamb is a member of the Alzheimer's Association Board of Directors, immediate-past chair of the Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Group and life-long volunteer and advocate for Alzheimer's and dementia research.

De Leon Prizes in Neuroimaging

The de Leon Prizes in Neuroimaging recognize scientists from ISTAART's community of researchers and clinicians judged to have published "best papers" in the field of neuroimaging of neurodegenerative processes. The awards are named after Mony J. de Leon, Ed.D., professor of psychiatry and director, Center for Brain Health at NYU Langone Health, and one of the founders of the Alzheimer's Imaging Consortium. The 2025 de Leon Prize honorees are:

• Senior Scientist:
  • Christos Davatzikos, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, United States
• Junior Scientists:
  • Hironobu Endonzmeier, M.D., Ph.D., National Institutes For Quantum Science and Technology, Japan
  • Maiko Ono, Ph.D., National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Japan
• Trainee:
  • Karly Cody, Ph.D., Stanford University, United States

About the Alzheimer's Association International Conference^® (AAIC^®)
The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.
AAIC 2025 home page: www.alz.org/aaic/
AAIC 2025 newsroom: www.alz.org/aaic/pressroom.asp
AAIC 2025 hashtag: #AAIC25

About the Alzheimer's Association^®
The Alzheimer's Association is a worldwide voluntary health organization dedicated to Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to lead the way to end Alzheimer's and all other dementia — by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's and all other dementia^®. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

SOURCE Alzheimer's Association