Dr. Rissman is the founding Director of the ATRI Biomarker Laboratory and Biorepository, and ACTC Biomarker Unit Lead. The facility is comprised by a wet laboratory and a large biorepository of -80 freezers to store specimens from clinical trials and longitudinal cohort studies. Using single analyte and multiplex bioassays, the goal of the lab is to identify biomarkers for preclinical AD and better understand how treatment parameters may impact these biomarkers. Concurrently with work at ATRI, Dr. Rissman is a PI at the VA San Diego, Professor of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and leads the ADCS Biomarker Core and ADRC Neuropathology Core.

The goal of Dr. Rissman’s basic science research is on novel biomarker discovery in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and preclinical studies in experimental. A major focus of his lab in AD biomarkers is on the utility and mechanistic underpinnings of neuronal exosomes and his group has published manuscripts demonstrating the ability of tau and abeta in neuronal exosomes to predict conversion from MCI to AD. The lab also investigate the contribution of stress and changes in stress signaling intermediates in Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology. Using transgenic mice and in vivo pharmacology, experiments are focused on identifying the role of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors in beta-amyloid deposition, tau phosphorylation and behavioral and synaptic changes.

Dr. Montine received his education at Columbia University (BA in Chemistry), the University of Rochester (PhD in Pharmacology), and McGill University (MD and CM). His postgraduate medical training was at Duke University, and he was junior faculty at Vanderbilt University where he was awarded the Thorne Professorship in Pathology. In 2002, Dr. Montine was appointed as the Alvord Endowed Professor in Neuropathology and Director of the Division of Neuropathology at the University of Washington. In 2010, Dr. Montine was appointed Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington, and in 2016, he was appointed Chair of the Department of Pathology at Stanford University and the Stanford Medicine Endowed Professor in Pathology. The focus of the Montine Laboratory is on the structural and molecular bases of cognitive impairment with the goal of defining key pathogenic steps and thereby new therapeutic targets. The Montine Laboratory addresses these prevalent, unmet medical needs through a combination of neuropathology, biomarker development and application early in the course of disease, and experimental studies that test hypotheses concerning specific mechanisms of neuron injury and approaches to neuroprotection. Dr. Montine’s role in ACTC is Chair of the Biospecimen Allocation Review Committee.

Sarah Walter is the Program Administrator for the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) and for the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) at the University of Southern California. Her role is to ensure efficient operation of the consortium and to foster collaboration both within the community and with external partners.  Her role is to ensure efficient operation of the consortium and to foster collaboration both within the community and with external partners.  Sarah is the Lead for Public and Participant Involvement (PPI), co-chairs the Research Partnership Alliance and has founded the first Research Partnership Group for Down Syndrome. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Laurie Ryan is Chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch in the Division of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging, part of the NIH. She oversees the development, coordination, and implementation of NIA’s translational and clinical Alzheimer’s disease research program.  Dr. Ryan also directs the Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials research portfolio.

Dr. Ryan received her BA in Human Development from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1986 and her Masters in Psychology from Loyola College in Maryland in 1991.  She undertook doctoral training in clinical psychology with specialty focus in neuropsychology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  She completed a neuropsychology-focused psychology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston and clinical neuropsychology fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia.

After completing her fellowship, Dr. Ryan joined the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.   In 2003, Dr. Ryan became the Assistant Director for Research where she was responsible for overseeing clinical research development and implementation with a particular focus on clinical trials.  In September 2005, Dr. Ryan joined the NIA as the Program Director for Alzheimer’s clinical trials.  In December 2013, she was promoted to her current position.

Dr. Ronald C. Petersen received a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Minnesota and graduated from Mayo Medical School in 1980.  He completed an internship in Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center and returned to the Mayo Clinic to complete a residency in Neurology.  That was followed by a fellowship in Behavioral Neurology at Harvard University Medical School/Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.  Dr. Petersen joined the staff of the Mayo Clinic in 1986 and became a Professor of Neurology in 1996.  In 2000 he was named the Cora Kanow Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Mayo Clinic Distinguished Investigator in 2011. He is currently the Director of the Mayo Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging and has authored over 960 peer-reviewed articles on memory disorders, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease. 

Dr. Petersen is one of the recipients of the 2004 MetLife Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and the 2005 Potamkin Prize for Research in Picks, Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders of the American Academy of Neurology.  In 2012 he received the Khachaturian Award and the Henry Wisniewski Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 from the Alzheimer’s Association.  In 2011 he was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve as the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Research, Care and Services for the National Alzheimer’s Disease Plan, and in 2014, he was appointed to the World Dementia Council by the UK government.

Dr. Reisa Sperling is a neurologist focused on the detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease at the pre-symptomatic or “preclinical” stage. Dr. Sperling is a Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.  Dr. Sperling is the co-Principal Investigator of the Harvard Aging Brain Study, with Dr. Keith Johnson, at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She co-leads the Alzheimer Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC), the NIA funded academic Alzheimer trial consortium, with Dr. Paul Aisen at University of Southern California, and Dr. Ron Petersen at the Mayo Clinic. For ACTC she also is also Co-Chair of the Inclusion, Diversity and Education in Alzheimer’s disease – Clinical Trials (IDEA-CT) Committee, and is a member of the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC).  Dr. Sperling chaired the 2011 NIA-Alzheimer’s Association workgroup to develop guidelines for the study of “Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.” She leads the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (A4) Study – a secondary prevention trial in over 1150 clinically normal older individuals with PET amyloid imaging evidence of early AD pathology, the companion LEARN Study, and two new AD prevention trials with the ACTC. Dr. Sperling received the 2011 Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, the 2015 American Academy of Neurology Potamkin Prize, and was named one of the 2017 Most Disruptive Women to Watch in Healthcare.