Setting the Future Directions of Alzheimer's Disease Research

Overview

The Advanced Study Institute is co-sponsored by the Croucher Foundation, the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study and the Alzheimer’s Association. The gathering will have an unusual format designed to address unusual, but critically important questions in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research. Over the past several years, the repeated failures of advanced stage clinical trials were witnessed. Looking back, the last new drug successfully brought to the Alzheimer’s market was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003. Why? Where is the cure that all of the scientists in the field felt confident ‘just around the corner’ after the identification of the APP and PS1 genes? Can they identify the problem(s) and plot a course correction to get closer to a world without Alzheimer? These are the questions that will be addressed during the three-day meeting. The format is as different as the mission of the meeting. The proceedings will be chaired by a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts, who are authorities in their field but none of them has worked on Alzheimer’s disease. They will lead a series of short presentations and discussions from experts from a wide range of opinions and approaches to Alzheimer’s and hopefully guide the meeting towards a synthesis and a proposed action plan to move the field forward.

Audience participation will be important so please plan to attend the entire event and to bring questions as well as notebooks.