San Diego County is home to some of the best and brightest Alzheimer’s researchers and institutions. Every year, Alzheimer’s San Diego is honored to host them as they come together at Date with a Cure. This free research forum provides a rare opportunity to get your questions about dementia answered – by the very experts working to find a cure.
This year, Date with a Cure will be held Tuesday, June 11th from 9 AM -11 AM via Zoom and is presented by SHARP. The esteemed panel represents some of the most cutting-edge breakthroughs in disease pathology and caregiving strategies.
Dr. James Brewer
Director | UCSD’s Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Dr. Brewer chairs the UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences and directs the Shiley Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He joined UC San Diego after completing MD and PhD degrees at Stanford and neurology residency training at Johns Hopkins. His research program focuses on applying advanced brain imaging approaches to detect the subtle and progressive changes that accompany aging and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Brewer has developed tools to support the detection of abnormal brain atrophy for patients being evaluated in the clinical setting and in clinical trials of new Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics and interventions.
Dr. Jerold Chun
Senior VP, Neuroscience Drug Discovery | Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Jerold Chun, MD, PhD, is a Distinguished Scholar at Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego and Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys (SBP) Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, CA. He received his MD and PhD (Neuroscience) through the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford University School of Medicine, completed postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute–MIT, and has held Professorships at UCSD School of Medicine, Scripps Research and SBP where he was also Senior Vice President for Neuroscience Drug Discovery. He has also served as Department Head of Molecular Neuroscience at Merck Research Laboratories and has interacted with the biotech and pharmaceutical industry over the last 25 years. His research has made important contributions to our understanding of the brain, including the discovery of genomic mosaicism and reverse transcriptase-mediated somatic gene recombination and its involvement in the most common forms of Alzheimer’s disease, with relevance to other brain diseases; and in separate work, he identified the first lysophospholipid receptor and other members of this lipid receptor family that underlie multiple medicines (e.g., fingolimod, siponimod, ozanimod, ponesimod and etrasimod). He has further contributed to an understanding of other diseases, including hydrocephalus, schizophrenia, neuropathic pain, infertility and fibrosis. Dr. Chun has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher since 2014.
Dr. Sherry Soefje
COO and Medical Director | Excell Research
Dr. Soefje is Co-Founder, Chief Financial Officer, and Medical Director of Excell Research. She brings close to 25 years of clinical trial experience, has participated in over 200 clinical trials in the CNS area, and has assumed the role as Principal Investigator for a majority of those trials since 2012.
Dr. Douglas Galasko
Neurologist & Professor of Neurosciences | UC San Diego
Dr. Galasko is helping to refine the use of biomarkers, including blood tests, to identify brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease to facilitate early and accurate diagnosis. He also works on clinical trials aiming to apply novel strategies and drug approaches to innovate in the treatment landscape for Alzheimer’s disease. These trials range from lifestyle and behavioral interventions to novel drug approaches for prevention and in people with young onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Michael Plopper
Medical Director | SHARP
Dr. Plopper, former chief medical officer of Sharp Behavioral Health Services for over 20 years, started the Clinical Research Program in 1995. He has served as principal investigator on over 200 psychiatric clinical trials for schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other central nervous system disorders in adults and children.
Dr. Hector M. González
Professor of Neurosciences | UCSD School of Medicine
Hector M. González is a Professor of Neurosciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. González is a population neuroscientist. He is the Principal Investigator of the Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging (SOL-INCA), which is the largest longitudinal study of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia among diverse Latinos.
Dr. Doris Molina-Henry
Assistant Professor, Research Neurology | USC Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute
Doris Molina-Henry, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute of the University of Southern California. Her work is focused on recruitment, engagement, and retention of participants in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) clinical trials, with special emphasis on increasing inclusion of underrepresented groups. Additionally, her work delves into biomarker differences that may underlie differential enrollment of different sociodemographic groups and how these may contribute to underrepresentation of these groups in AD studies.
We’ll see you at Date with a Cure on June 11th – bring your questions! REGISTER >
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