Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD is Director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cleveland, Ohio, and Westin, Florida
Dr. Cummings is Director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cleveland, Ohio, and Westin, Florida. He is the Andrea and Joseph Hahn Chair of Neurotherapeutics of the Neurological Institute of Cleveland Clinic. The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is a clinical care, translational research, and clinical trials enterprise specializing in care of patients with neurocognitive deficits and development of new therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Cummings' research and leadership contributions in the field of Alzheimer's disease have been recognized through the Henderson Award of the American Geriatrics Society (2006), the Research Award of the John Douglas French Alzheimer's Research Foundation (2008), and the Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award of the national Alzheimer's Association (2008). In 2010, he received the Legacy Award from the Ticki Wilkerson-Kassel Movement Therapy Foundation and was honored by the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry with their Distinguished Scientist Award. Dr. Cummings was featured in the Gentleman's Quarterly (June 2009), Vogue (September 2009) and Vanity Fair (September 2009) as a "Rockstar of Science."
Dr. Cummings is the author of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) which has become the most commonly used tool for characterizing behavioral disturbances in dementia syndromes and for measuring the effect of antidementia therapies on neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Dr. Cummings is an experienced clinical trialist with expertise in clinical trial design and analysis, global trial implementation, and trial outcome measures. He is a member of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study and of the oversight committee of the NINDS Neuroprotection in Parkinson's Disease program.
Dr. Cummings completed Neurology residency and a Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. US training was followed by a Research Fellowship in Neuropathology and Neuropsychiatry at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square, London, England. Dr. Cummings was formerly Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA, director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research at UCLA, and director of the Deane F. Johnson Center for Neurotherapeutics at UCLA. He is past president of the Behavioral Neurology Society and of the American Neuropsychiatric Association. Dr. Cummings has authored or edited 30 books and published nearly 600 peer-reviewed papers.
Current titles include:
Director, Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
Andrea and Joseph Hahn Chair of Neurotherapeutics
Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute
Las Vegas, Nevada; Cleveland, Ohio; Westin, Florida
Rachelle S. Doody, MD, PhD, Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research and Professor of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Doody is the Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer's Disease Research and Professor of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine. She received a B.A. from Rice University, a M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, and completed internship and residency training at the Royal Victoria Hospital and Montreal Neurologic Institute in Montreal, and at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Doody has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Anthropology from Rice University where she studied the brain and language. She has published over 135 original articles, most of which deal with the diagnosis, progression, or treatment of Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders. She has received multiple research grants, including a Zenith Award from the National Alzheimer's Association, and conducted numerous clinical trials of Alzheimer's Disease therapies. She participates in National and International collaborative efforts, review boards, and advisory boards. Current research interests include studies to understand and model the progression of Alzheimer's Disease, studies of clinical heterogeneity, and research and development of new medications to treat Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Doody has served on the Texas Council on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, the Board of Directors for the Houston and Southeast Texas Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association and is listed in Best Doctors in America. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Rice University in 2009.
Martin R. Farlow, MD, Chairman Neurology Dept., Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN
Dr. Farlow is Professor of Neurology and Vice-Chairman of Research in the Department of Neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. He is also Associate Co-Director of the Indiana Alzheimer's Disease Center in Indianapolis. Dr Farlow received his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed an internship in medicine and residency in neurology at the Indiana University Hospitals. Dr Farlow is a member of many professional associations including the American Academy of Neurology, the American Neurological Association, and the American Geriatrics Society. He is also a founding member in both the American Society of Experimental Neurotherapeutics and the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology. Dr Farlow has lectured on the topics of aging, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease at more than 275 meetings, conferences, and hospitals/medical schools throughout the world. He is a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and on the editorial boards of MedLink and Current Alzheimer Research. A prolific author, Dr Farlow has submitted more than 375 abstracts to professional meetings and has authored or co-authored more than 330 articles published in peer-reviewed journals such as Lancet Neurology, the Annals of Family Medicine, and the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Dr Farlow's research focuses on clinical trials of investigational drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias with an emphasis on molecular genetics, biomarkers, and neuroimaging.
Biography
Mary Sano, PhD, Professor Psychiatry, Director AD Research, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Dr. Sano is Professor of Psychiatry and the Director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She is also the Director of Research and Development at the Bronx Veterans Administration Hospital. Currently she is the director of a national multi-center study known as CLASP (Cholesterol Lowering in Alzheimer's Disease to Slow Progression). Dr. Sano is a neuropsychologist by training and has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and mild cognitive impairment of aging. In 1989 she received the Florence and Herbert Irving Clinical Research Career Award to develop methodologies for the assessment of therapeutic agents in Alzheimer's disease. She directed the first ADCS multicenter trial of vitamin E and Selegiline, treatments which delayed the clinical progression of Alzheimer's disease and in 1998 she received the Veris Award for this study. In this study minority participation was more than double that of any other clinical trial for this disease. Her research interests are in clinical trial design and the impact of pharmacological treatments on the functional abilities of individuals with cognitive impairment.
At present she is the director of a new clinical study to determine if home based assessments can be used assess treatments for the prevention of cognitive loss and dementia. She has also developed tools to assess the economic impact of subtle cognitive changes in elderly subjects. Other areas of interest include the role of depression in cognitive impairment and dementia, womens' attitudes about prevention of memory loss, and measuring quality of life in diseases of aging. She is also the recipient of the Alzheimer Association grant to study Resveritrol, one of the active ingredients in red wine. Dr. Sano has also conducted work characterizing the cognitive impact of head injury, Sickle Cell disease, and mitochondrial disorders.