Le Zhang, PhD
Le Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine. Le obtained her B.S. in Biological Science from Peking University and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Hong Kong. Le had her postdoctoral trainings at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School.
Lisa Barnhill, PhD
Lisa is an Assistant Project Scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. She conducts research in the field of environmental toxicology directed at understanding how environmental exposures can alter neurodegenerative disease processes. Her previous research explored how exposure to components of air pollution can induce neurotoxicity in a zebrafish model system.
Chuyu Chen, PhD
Chuyu is a postdoc fellow in the department of Pharmacology, Northwestern University. She studied the pathologic mechanism of LRRK2 by generating a disease model as a graduate student. After joining Parisiadou's lab, she is devoted to studying cell type specific LRRK2 dysfunction.
Philip De Jager, MD, PhD
Philip is the Chief of the Division of Neuroimmunology and Deputy Director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is a practicing clinical neuroimmunologist and molecular/statistical geneticist and cellular neuroimmunologist. He completed his MD PhD at Rockefeller University and Cornell Medical Center before finishing his clinical and specialty training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women's Hospital. He then joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School before creating the Division of Neuroimmunology at Columbia. His interest lies in understanding and modulating the role of immune responses in human neurodegeneration using unbiased, data-driven approaches.
David Eisenberg
David S. Eisenberg is the Paul D. Boyer Chair of Molecular Biology at UCLA. His research focuses on the molecular basis of neurodegeneration, using structural and biochemical tools. He is a member of both the National Acadamies of Science and Medicine.
Daniel El Kodsi, PhD
During Daniel's scientific training as a neuroscientist, under Dr. Michael Schlossmacher, he focused on the pathogenesis of early-onset parkinsonism. He was able to: (i) investigate the PD pathogenesis and delineate disease mechanisms; (ii) build animal models to restage PD gene-linked neural degeneration; and (i) delineate Parkin-related cellular mechanisms using both cell and protein modelling. These efforts culminated in the discovery of a novel antioxidant function for wild-type parkin in human brain. Transitioning into more clinical work, he focused on COVID-19 research, sero-surveillance and prevalence, under the supervision of Dr. Amy Hsu. As a clinical research program manager he was tasked with: (i) assessing SARS-CoV-2 infection, re-infection, and serious outcomes in Long-Term Care (LTC) sector; (ii) investigating natural and vaccine-induced immunity; and (iii) building prediction models for SARS-CoV-2. This allowed him to harness high-level project management skills.
Kyle Farmer, PhD
Kyle is a Research Scientist in the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (PIND) in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh. Kyle currently supports the Greenamyre & Rocha Labs, as well as the core facilities within the PIND. He has expertise in both in vivo and in vitro modeling, with expertise in molecular biology. He completed his Doctoral work at Carleton University in Canada as a CIHR CGRS-D scholar dissecting mGluR5 as a neuroprotective target in the 6-OHDA models of PD. Kyle was a Parkinson's Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow studying USP30 in PD.
Jasmin Galper, PhD
Jasmin is a Research Fellow at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and a research affiliate at The University of Sydney. Jasmin completed her PhD at The University of Sydney in a team with Glenda Halliday, Simon Lewis and Nicolas Dzamko where she investigated lipid and inflammatory blood and CSF biomarkers in Parkinson's disease.
Andreas Keller, PhD
Andreas is a Full Professor and Chair of Clinical Bioinformatics at Saarland University and the Head of the Bioinformatics Department at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). He previously served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and led diagnostic innovation at Siemens Healthineers. A recognized expert in non-coding RNAs and single-cell transcriptomics, he has been honored as a "Highly Cited Researcher" and has published over 350 scientific papers and 40 patents in the fields of systems biology and personalized medicine.
Anna Krichevsky, PhD
Anna Krichevsky is a Professor of Neurology at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, and co-director of Harvard’s Initiative for RNA Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and completed postdoctoral training at HMS, where she studied RNA homeostasis in brain physiology and pathology. Her notable achievements include isolating neuronal RNA granules, performing the first RNA interference in mammalian neurons, identifying brain-specific microRNAs, and discovering key regulatory RNA targets in brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases.
Hina Ojha, PhD
Hina Ojha is a postdoctoral researcher in the Muqit laboratory at the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit, University of Dundee. She completed her PhD at the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune, where she studied human complement regulators and developed a complement activation inhibitor as a potential therapeutic strategy. She now applies her training in biochemistry, structural, and cellular biology to investigate mitochondrial quality control mechanisms in Parkinson’s disease, including PINK1 signalling and the characterisation of emerging Parkinson’s disease-associated genes.
Leonard Petrucelli, PhD
Len earned his PhD in molecular and cellular biochemistry at Loyola University and the Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. John Hardy at Mayo Clinic Florida, where he quickly rose through the ranks in the Department of Neuroscience. During his time at Mayo, Len served as the departmental chair and had the honor of being recognized as the Ralph B. and Ruth K. Abrams Professor. Recently, Len was recruited to serve as the Director of the Neuroscience Institute at the University of Miami, where he leads research efforts as a Professor in the Department of Neurology. He also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Science Translational Medicine and is the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Target ALS Foundation.
Louise Piilgaard, PhD
Louise Piilgaard is a postdoctoral researcher at reNEW (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), where she focuses on developing stem cell-based models to study neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease, TDP-43 proteinopathies, dementia, and evaluate innovative therapeutic strategies. She earned my PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Copenhagen, where she investigated the pathophysiology of narcolepsy using rodent models and advanced neurophysiological techniques. Her work spans translational neuroscience, integrating in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro approaches to bridge fundamental research and clinical application with a strong commitment to advancing treatments for patients with neurological disorders.
Mercedes Prudencio, PhD
Mercedes is an Associate Professor (pending rank) at the University of Miami, focusing on understanding disease mechanisms to identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for diseases characterized with TDP-43 pathology (TDP-43 proteinopathies). Originally from Spain, Mercedes went to the USA to study Neuroscience at the University of Florida, under the guidance of Dr. David Borchelt. After obtaining her PhD, she began her postdoctoral training with Dr. Leonard Petrucelli at the Mayo Clinic in Florida, where she established her independent research program in 2021. She recently transitioned (4/2026) as new faculty of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at the University of Miami
Beate Ritz, MD, PhD
Beate Ritz is a Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology, Environmental Health Sciences and Neurology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the DG School of Medicine. Her research reaches across epidemiology, neuroscience, genetics, and clinical medicine with a focus on occupational and common environmental toxicants that play a role in brain health from neurodevelopment to neurodegeneration. She received the Society for Epidemiology Research (SER) 2022 Ken Rothman Career Achievement Award and the John Goldsmith Career Award from the International Society for Environment Epidemiology (ISEE) in 2024. In 2018 and 2025, she was among the top 1% most cited scientists worldwide (Clarivate).
Tiffany Todd, PhD
Tiffany is a scientific writer focusing on the generation, revision, and submission of manuscripts, grant applications, abstracts, and other research-associated documents. She received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and The History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, and she earned her PhD in Genetics from Yale University, where she studied polyglutamine disorders with Dr. Janghoo Lim. Tiffany completed her postdoctoral studies with Dr. Leonard Petrucelli at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, where she was promoted to principal research technologist in the Department of Neuroscience and cut her teeth as a scientific writer.
Joel Watts, PhD
Joel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, and an Investigator at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases. Following his PhD studies with David Westaway at the University of Toronto, he conducted postdoctoral work on prions and prion-like protein aggregates in the lab of Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner at the University of California San Francisco. Joel is currently the Canada Research Chair in Protein Misfolding Disorders.
Yongjie Zhang, PhD
Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic Florida. His research focuses on the mechanisms and toxicity of abnormal protein aggregation, spatial neuropathology, and neuroimmune responses in neurodegenerative diseases, including FTD, ALS, AD, and PD. His work integrates mouse models, human postmortem brain tissue, and human iNeuron models to investigate how pathological proteins, particularly TDP-43, drive copathologies and adaptive immune responses. Ultimately, his research seeks to identify disease-relevant molecular and cellular mechanisms that can guide biomarker discovery and the development of targeted therapeutic strategies.
Drake Bytnar
Drake is the Project Manager for the Tansey lab at Indiana University School of Medicine. He has exposure to clinical, academic, and trial lab experiences with a focus on hematology and immunology.
YuHong Fu, PhD
YuHong is a senior research fellow at the Brain and Mind Center of the University of Sydney, specializing in human neuropathology and the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease. She brings advanced histopathology expertise and extensive experience analyzing postmortem human and rodent brain tissue. Her research focuses on selective neuronal vulnerability and glial pathogenic pathways in synucleinopathies.
