2025 Presentations

Prion Disease Basics – Clinical

Brian Appleby, MD, Director, National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH

Prion Disease Basics – Research

Joel Watts, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The 2025 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Report

Ryan Maddox, PhD, Epidemiologist, Prion & Public Health Office, Division of High-Consequence Pathogens & Pathology, National Center for Emerging & Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, GA

Drug Development Panel

Kiyoshi Arita, MSc, Project/Product Manager, Research and Development Division, International Clinical Development Department, Nobelpharma Co., Ltd., Tôkyô, Japan
Elizabeth McNeil, MD, MSc, Global Clinical Program Lead in Neurology, Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., Richmond, CA
Eric Minikel, PhD, Director, Prion Therapeutic Science, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA;
Nina Oberbeck, PhD, Vice President of Translational Sciences, Gate Bioscience, Brisbane, CA
Anne Smith, PhD, Vice President of Clinical Development, Ionis Pharmaceuaticals, Inc., Carlsbad, CA
Brian Appleby, MD (moderator), Director, National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH

A Multi-Targeted Approach in Search of Prion Disease Therapy

James Mastrianni, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology, Director, Center for Comprehensive Care and Research on Memory Disorders, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Exploring the efficacy of dominant negative protein-based gene therapy for different prion diseases: in vivo proof-of-concept study

Joaquín Castilla, PhD, IKERBasque Research Professor, Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Derio, Spain

Investigation of Glycoprotein Nonmetastatic Melanoma protein B (GPNMB) as potential therapeutic target in Prion Diseases

Elena De Cecco, PhD, Senior Researcher, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

Development of ADAM8-based Gene Therapy for CJD

Qingzhong Kong, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology and Neurology and Assistant Director, National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH

Understanding the molecular mechanism of spontaneous prion emergence in knock-in mouse models

Surabhi Mehra, PhD, MSc, Postdoctoral Fellow, Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Bridging the pre-clinical gap for a small brain-penetrant molecule that reduces PrPC levels

Gerold Schmitt-Ulms, PhD, Professor and Graduate Faculty Member, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Generating cerebral organoids from donors with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Arielle Hay, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Prion Cell Biology Unit, Laboratory of Neurological Infections and Immunity, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, MT

Validation of a non-invasive diagnostic test for prion diseases using tear fluid

Matthias Schmitz, PhD, Dementia Research Unit, Department of Neurology in Göttingen, National Reference Center for TSE and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Göttingen, Germany

Drug Development Panel Question and Answer

Keynote Address in Honor of Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti: Novel Mouse Models of Prion Diseases

Glenn Telling, PhD, Director, Prion Research Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Panel

Brian Appleby, MD, Director; Eriton Cunha, PhD, Tissue Lab Scientist; Katie Glisic, MA, Administrative Lead; and Meghan Lewis, MA, Autopsy Specialist

Bereavement Workshop

Tessa Garcia McEwen, AM, LCSW, Certified Dementia Practitioner, Certified Grief Educator, The Memory Center, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL

CJD Foundation Grants Program

Debbie Yobs, President and Executive Director, CJD Foundation
Joel Watts, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CJD Foundation Report: Programs, Finance, Advocacy, and Strides for CJD

Debbie Yobs, President and Executive Director, CJD Foundation;
Jacob Schwister, CJD Foundation Board of Directors
Lori Nusbaum, Program Director, CJD Foundation, Akron, OH

CJD Foundation Family Panel: “My Story, My Mission”

Debbie Yobs (Moderator)
Karen Adams
Pat Elliot
Elizabeth Rodriguez
Tim Schwister