Brain Aging Symposium

October 22, 2025

 2025 Agenda

  • 08:30 – 08:40

    Opening Remarks

    08:40 – 09:10

    Howard Fillit (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)

    Translating the Biology of Aging Into New Therapeutics for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias

    09:10 – 09:40

    Reisa Sperling (Harvard Medical School)

    Can we detect and treat Alzheimer’s disease a decade before dementia? (And why we must!)

    09:40 – 10:10

    Gene Bowman (Harvard Medical School)

    Title TBD

    10:10 – 10:40

    Manolis Kellis (MIT)

    Generative AI, single-cell circuitry, and protein-chemistry-function joint embeddings for genomic medicine and personalized therapeutics in the aging brain

    10:40 – 11:10

    Coffee Break

    11:10 – 11:40

    Yakeel Quiroz (Harvard Medical School)

    Risk and protective factors in autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease

    11:40 – 12:10

    Jasmeer Chhatwal (Harvard Medical School)

    Title TBD

    12:10 – 12:40

    Ravikiran Raju (MIT)

    Advancing a molecular understanding of how social isolation disrupts the aged human brain

    12:40 – 13:10

    Richard Mohs (Global Alzheimer’s Platform)

    Biomarkers of cognitive impairment in the Bio Hermes study: those related to amyloid and other types of neurodegeneration

    13:10 – 13:15

    Closing Remarks

2025 Speakers

  • Howard Fillit

    CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER AT THE ALZHEIMER’S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATION (ADDF)

    Dr. Howard Fillit, a geriatrician and neuroscientist, has led the ADDF since its founding, driving innovation in Alzheimer’s drug development.

    He has authored or co-authored more than 300 publications and is the senior editor of Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. Dr. Fillit is the recipient of many awards and honors including the Rita Hayworth Award from the Alzheimer's Association.

  • Reisa Sperling

    CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR OF THE HARVARD AGING BRAIN STUDY

    Dr. Reisa Sperling, a leading neurologist, focuses on detecting Alzheimer’s before symptoms appear.

    As co-Principal Investigator of the Harvard Aging Brain Study, she uses neuroimaging and cognitive tests to identify early brain changes. Her findings have shaped global strategies for prevention trials.

    Dr. Sperling is a Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Director of Neuroimaging for the Massachusetts ADRC at Massachusetts General Hospital.

  • Jasmeer Chhatwal

    CO-INVESTIGATOR OF THE HARVARD AGING BRAIN STUDY

    Dr. Jasmeer Chhatwal studied biology and philosophy at Yale University, prior to earning his MD and PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University.

    He completed his residency in Adult Neurology at Partners, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in Memory Disorders at MGH and in the laboratory of Reisa Sperling.

    His research focuses on improving imaging biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and applying functional and molecular imaging techniques to study how targeted network degeneration in AD leads to memory loss.

  • Yakeel T. Quiroz

    CO-INVESTIGATOR OF THE HARVARD AGING BRAIN STUDY

    Dr. Yakeel T. Quiroz is Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University in Boston, MA.

    She is the Director of the Mass General Familial Dementia Neuroimaging Lab, and the Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program-MAPP.

    Her research interests include brain imaging and genomics, and early detection and prevention of autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Research in her lab is focused on the study of cognitive and brain changes that predispose individuals to develop dementia later in life.

  • Gene Bowman

    CLINICAL TRIALS DIRECTOR, MCCANCE CENTER

    Dr. Bowman’s research focuses on the connections between nutrition, cognitive aging, and Alzheimer’s disease.

    Notable achievements include receiving the NIH’s Dr. Ruth L. Kirschstein Award for his work on gastric acidity and cognitive impairment and a NIH K23 Career Development Award to advance individualized nutritional therapies for Alzheimer’s prevention.

    His team identified and validated nutrient biomarkers as indicators of cognitive health and brain aging, leading to the first targeted nutritional intervention for dementia prevention.

  • Manolis Kellis

    HEAD, MIT COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY GROUP

    Dr. Manolis Kellis is a professor of Computer Science and Computational Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

    He is the head of the Computational Biology Group at MIT and is a Principal Investigator in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) at MIT.

    He co-led the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Project effort to create a comprehensive map of the human epigenome.

    A major focus of his work is understanding the effects of genetic variations on human disease, with contributions to obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and cancer.

  • Ravikiran Raju

    MD, PHD, ATTENDING PHYSICIAN AT BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

    Dr. Raju is on faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School as an Attending Physician in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and an Instructor in Pediatrics, respectively.

    He is interested in better understanding how adverse childhood experiences impact health in adulthood. To study this, he uses mouse models of different environmental exposures coupled with next-generation sequencing technology to investigate how exposure to different environments influences neurodevelopment and aging.

  • Richard Mohs

    GLOBAL ALZHEIMER’S PLATFORM

    Richard worked at Eli Lilly and Company in several leadership positions including Vice President for Neuroscience Early Clinical Development and Leader of the Global Alzheimer’s Drug Development team. He spent 23 years with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Richard is the author or co-author of over 350 scientific papers, is a consultant to several academic institutions, is a member of the Board of Governors for the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. He received a PhD in psychology from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training in Pharmacology at the Stanford Medical School. 

Meet the Team

  • Vadim Gladyshev, PhD

    Professor of Medicine, Biology of Aging, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

  • Mahdi Moqri, PhD

    Instructor in Medicine, Genetics
    Brigham and Women’s Hospital

  • Jesse Poganik, PhD

    Instructor in Medicine, Genetics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

  • Chiara Herzog, PhD

    King’s Prize Fellow, King’s College London