Dr. Adriano Aguzzi
Adriano Aguzzi has devoted his professional life to deciphering the role of the immune system in prion diseases. The importance of his work is acknowledged by more than 80’000 citations (H-index: 143). Aguzzi’s findings of pervasive colonization of the immune system by prions convinced governments worldwide to undertake efforts to limit human exposure to prions derived from farm animals. His finding of the B-cell requirement for prion spread was the basis of the UK’s decision to introduce universal leukodepletion of blood donation – a measure that may have saved many human lives. His work demonstrated that chronic inflammation controls the organ tropism of prion diseases, thereby clarifying how scrapie prions propagate horizontally within sheep flocks. His discoveries were
shown to be valid for all common neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s.

Dr. Vangelis Bouris
Vangelis Bouris is a PhD candidate in the Molecular Life Sciences PhD Program at the University of Zurich. He holds an MSc in Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience from the University of Tübingen. In his doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Adriano Aguzzi, he applies genome-wide genetic screens to identify the molecular pathways that drive prion propagation.