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Alzheimer's disease therapeutics - are we winning or losing?

Friday 16th March 2012
 Living Tomorrow Conference Centre, Brussels, Belgium

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the major cause of dementia that has a devastating effect both on patients and care givers. Age is a major risk factor for AD, and with the anticipated demographic change to a more aged population, the prevalence of AD is set to soar to over 100 million by 2050. Unless medicines are found that are able to slow or stop the progression of the disease, the cost of the disease to healthcare providers will be unsustainable.

Currently, the only medications that are available for patients have a very modest symptomatic effect on cognitive performance for a limited time. The pathognomonic signs of AD were first described by Alois Alzheimer in 1907 and the plaques and tangles that he identified in the brains of patients with AD were sub­sequently shown to be composed largely of amyloid-â peptide and hyperphosphorylated tau, respectively.

Human genetics has been crucial to our understanding of the disease and led to the articulation of the ‘amyloid cascade hypothesis’ which has strongly influenced the direction of research for the last 20 years. We are now entering a critical phase where therapeutic approaches that purport to test the amyloid cascade hypothesis by reducing the levels of the Ab peptide in the brain are in phase 3 clinical development.

This meeting brings some of the world’s leaders in academic research together with pharmaceutical researchers who have made key breakthroughs in developing therapeutic approaches in this most challenging of diseases. The programme reviews the foundational science and moves on to review therapeutic approaches that target amyloid and tau pathology.
 

Confirmed Speakers:
Prof. John Hardy FRS, Institute of Neurology, UK
Will new genetic findings in AD translate to new therapies?

Eric Karran, Institute of Neurology, UK
Testing the amyloid cascade hypothesis in the clinic – a challenge to the current paradigm.

Prof Bart De Strooper, KULeuven, Belgium
Gamma secretase as a target – is it over or just beginning?

Harrie Gijsen, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Beerse, Belgium
Gamma secretase modulators - current progress and challenges

Andrew Stamford, PhD, Discovery Chemistry, Merck Research Laboratories, Rahway, NJ
BACE inhibition – a tough target starts to yield

Prof. Per I. Arvidsson, iMed Project Director CNS & Pain, AstraZeneca
GSK3b inhibitors as a potential target to ameliorate tau pathology.

Hotel Accommodation
Living Tomorrow Conference Centre recommends that attendees book their own accommodation in hotels in Diegem or Zaventem depending on their own budget.

 Parking
There is limited parking at the venue at €10 a day. You can reserve a space via the registration document.
 

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