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Dementia across the lifespan

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The conference & who should attend

Join UCI MIND, Alzheimer’s Orange County, and Alzheimer’s Association for the 33rd Annual Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference. This hybrid conference will cover a wide range of topics across the lifespan, such as Down syndrome, frontotemporal dementia, early-onset Alzheimer’s, the oldest-old, and even more.

  • Educational conference open to the public – all are welcome to register
  • Sponsorship opportunities are available
  • CEUs can be added onto your registration for in-person attendees

Who should attend

Healthcare providers

Senior/social service providers

Researchers

Students

People living with dementia & their families

UCI MIND

UCI MIND is one of 32 congressionally designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the nation and the only center in Orange County. For more than 30 years, UCI MIND has served at the forefront of Alzheimer’s disease research, gaining international recognition for its scientific accomplishments.

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Alzheimer’s OC

Alzheimer’s Orange County is dedicated to providing quality care and support services to the thousands of residents of Orange County who are affected by Alzheimer’s disease or other related dementia, and also partnering with local researchers to populate clinical trials to help find a cure.

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Alzheimer’s Association Orange County Chapter

The Alzheimer’s Association, Orange County Chapter is here to help families, caregivers, health care professionals, and those living with the disease by providing education and support, advocating for the needs and rights of those facing Alzheimer’s disease and all other dementia, and advancing critical research to develop new treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

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AGENDA

Each talk features a presentation followed by live Q&A

8:00 – 9:00 AM PT
REGISTRATION, BREAKFAST, & RESOURCE FAIR
9:00 – 9:15 AM PT
OPENING REMARKS:
Jim McAleer, MPA, Alzheimer’s Orange County | Deborah Levy, Alzheimer's Association, Orange County Chapter | Joshua Grill, PhD, University of California, Irvine
9:15 – 9:35 AM PT
Delving into Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome - how a lifespan approach can help
Elizabeth Head, PhD, Professor, Vice Chair for Research, Pathology, University of California, Irvine
9:35 – 9:45 AM PT
Q&A
9:45 – 10:05 AM PT
A Family Matter: Genetics and Alzheimer’s disease
Jessica Langbaum, PhD, Co-Director, Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative, Banner Alzheimer's Institute
10:05 – 10:15 AM PT
Q&A
10:15 – 10:45 AM PT
RESOURCE FAIR
10:45 – 11:00 AM PT
UCSF Care Ecosystem Program
Katherine Possin, PhD, Associate Professor, Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Memory and Aging Center
11:00 – 11:15 AM PT
UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program
Lee A. Jennings, MD, MSHS, Chief and Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Reynolds Section of Geriatric Medicine
11:15 – 11:30 AM PT
Q&A
11:30 – 11:50 AM PT
Frontotemporal dementias: Clinical description and effort to develop treatments
Peter Ljubenkov, MD, Assistant Professor, Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Memory and Aging Center
11:50 AM – 12:00 PM PT
Q&A
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PT
LUNCH + RESOURCE FAIR
1:00 PM – 1:20 PM PT
Introducing LATE: An important underpinning of dementia in later life
S. Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Neurology, Pathology, University of California, Irvine
1:20 PM – 1:30 PM PT
Q&A
1:30 PM – 1:50 PM PT
Factors contributing to resistance and resilience in the aging population
Prashanthi Vemuri, PhD, Professor, Radiology, Mayo Clinic
1:50 PM – 2:00 PM PT
Q&A
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM PT
RESOURCE FAIR
2:30 PM – 3:10 PM PT
Caregiver Panel with Joshua Grill, PhD, University of California, Irvine (Moderator)
3:10 PM – 3:15 PM PT
Closing Remarks
Joshua Grill, PhD, University of California, Irvine

SPEAKERS

Jim McAleer, MPA

Alzheimer's Orange County

Jim McAleer began his career in the nonprofit world at age eighteen while pursing an undergraduate degree in Savannah, Georgia. For the next 22 years, McAleer worked in leadership roles with non-profit organizations assisting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Since 2004, Jim has held the role of President/CEO of Alzheimer’s Orange County, serving the 84,000+ people living in OC with, or at risk of, dementia. He manages 13 million dollars in income and a staff of 160. He has presented more than 100 professional presentations and has served on five nonprofit board of directors including Cal Optima.

Deborah Levy

Alzheimer's Association, Orange County Chapter

Deborah is an award-winning television news journalist and nonprofit executive with a broad and diverse background leading some of the world’s most recognizable and respected charities. She has raised more than $100 million during the course of her career for organizations that improve the lives of children and families, cancer research, and important capital projects. Deborah joined the Alzheimer's Association as executive director for Orange County in April 2021.

Joshua Grill, PhD

University of California, Irvine

Dr. Grill is a Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Neurobiology & Behavior at UCI. He serves as Director of UCI MIND, Associate Director of the UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and Leader of the Recruitment & Retention Unit for the UCI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science. His research focuses on clinical trials across the spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease, and he has published a number of important findings on trial design, recruitment and retention, and research ethics.

Elizabeth Head, PhD

University of California, Irvine

Dr. Head received a Masters in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto, Canada. She received postdoctoral training at the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) at the University of California – Irvine. Dr. Head moved to the University of Kentucky in January of 2009 and was a Professor and Associate Director of Education at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. After returning to the University of California at Irvine in 2019, she is now a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Head has published over 200 peer reviewed papers, over 30 review papers and book chapters. She is active in mentoring and education and serves on the UCI MIND Alzheimer disease research center Research Education Component Executive Committee. Dr. Head has dedicated over 25 years to the study of aging and Alzheimer disease with a focus on people with Down syndrome using multidisciplinary and translational approaches.

Katherine Possin, PhD

University of California, San Francisco

Kate Possin holds the John Douglas French Foundation Endowed Professorship at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, where she is the ADRC Clinical Core Associate Director. Her research program is focused on improving the detection, diagnosis, and care for people with neurodegenerative disease. She has designed and developed cognitive measures for early diagnosis and disease monitoring, including tablet-based measures that are easy to use in everyday clinical and research settings. In addition, Dr. Possin directs the Care Ecosystem, a telephone-based collaborative care model for people with dementia and their caregivers that improves patient quality of life and caregiver well-being, while reducing emergency visit use.

Lee A. Jennings, MD, MSHS

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Lee A. Jennings, MD, MSHS, Associate Professor and Chief, Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, is a geriatrician and health services researcher whose work focuses on improving models of care delivery for dementia and aligning care received with patient health goals. She is the Director of the Oklahoma Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, PI for the ACL-funded Oklahoma Falls Prevention Program, and a multi-PI for an AHRQ-funded grant to reduce opiate use disorder and improve chronic pain management in Oklahoma primary care practices. She is a co-investigator on dementia models of care research funded by PCORI, NIA, and the Hartford Foundation and co-chairs the AGS Women in Geriatrics Section.

Jessica Langbaum, PhD

Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix

Dr. Jessica Langbaum is the Director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative (API) department, a collaborative program led by Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. As part of the API program, Dr. Langbaum directs the Alzheimer’s Prevention Registry and its GeneMatch program. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Arizona Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Administrative Core and co-director of its Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement Core. Her research is focused on (1) establishing the science of participant recruitment and retention for Alzheimer’s prevention studies, including designing and executing participant recruitment registries, (2) assessing the impact of genetic testing and risk disclosure, in particular disclosure of APOE and other biomarker (e.g., brain amyloid) results, and (3) designing and executing Alzheimer’s prevention trials, including developing sensitive, novel composite cognitive test scores for use as primary endpoint measures. She has published numerous papers on these topics. She serves as Principal Investigator for several clinical trials and NIH grants.

Peter Ljubenkov, MD

University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Ljubenkov is a behavioral neurologist with 7 years of experience as an investigator in numerous clinical trials enrolling patients with neurodegenerative disease. Most notably, he is a primary investigator for Veri-T: A Trial of Verdiperstat in Patients With svPPA (semantic variant primary progressive aphasia) Due to TDP-43 Pathology. Veri-T is the first clinical trial in patients with svPPA and the first NIH-funded multi-site trial serving patients with frontotemporal dementia. Additionally he is currently the designated primary investigator (PI) for INFRONT-3, an international multi-center study which is the first phase 3 clinical therapeutic trial in patients with frontotemporal dementia due to progranulin deficiency. He has also served as UCSF’s site PI for multiple clinical trials enrolling participants with Alzheimer’s and FTLD spectrum disease and served as medical monitor for multiple clinical studies, including the first phase 1 parallel cohort “basket design” clinical trial in patients with primary tauopathies.

Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD

University of California, Irvine

Dr. Ahmad Sajjadi is Associate Professor of Neurology and Pathology in the UCI School of Medicine. Dr. Sajjadi received his medical degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran and his PhD from the University of Cambridge in the UK. Dr. Sajjadi is a behavioral neurologist who sees patients with memory concerns and also conducts research on Alzheimer’s disease and atypical forms of dementia, such as frontotemporal dementia.

Prashanthi Vemuri, PhD

Mayo Clinic

Dr. Vemuri is a Professor in the Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic Rochester and has a broad background in engineering and clinical neuroscience, with specific training and expertise in imaging of neurodegenerative disorders. Her areas of research are 1) developing and validating imaging-based biomarkers to improve the understanding and management of Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular disease and 2) 1) investigating mechanisms through which protective and risk factors influence AD imaging biomarkers and outcomes. Dr. Vemuri has over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous conference abstracts and book chapters to her credit. Her research work is supported by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Vemuri was recipient of the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence grant from the NIA and was awarded the 2020 de Leon Prize in Neuroimaging in the Senior Scientist category. She serves on NIH study section and serves as an advisory board member or committee member on national and international committees in her research area.

IN-PERSON LOCATION

Friday, September 9, 2022

8:00 AM – 3:15 PM PT

Irvine Marriott Hotel

18000 Von Karman Ave

Irvine, CA 92612

Parking:

Your conference registration includes one-time hotel self-parking validation (not valet) per person on Friday, September 9, 2022. Please bring your ticket inside to the Registration booth for your validation sticker.

Room Reservations:

For room reservations at a special group rate, book by August 17, 2022. Call 800-228-9290 or click the link below:

ROOM RESERVATIONS
ROOM RESERVATIONS
ROOM RESERVATIONS
HOTEL MAP
HOTEL MAP
HOTEL MAP

FAQs

Where do I park for the event and how much is parking?

Your conference registration includes one-time hotel self-parking validation (not valet) per person on Friday, September 9, 2022. Please bring your registration email in print or on a mobile device inside to the Registration booth for your validation sticker. Be sure to park in Irvine Marriott Hotel designated parking only. Cars parked in lots or structures of other businesses will not be validated.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?

If you have general questions, please email conference@mind.uci.edu or call 949.824.9896. If you have any questions pertaining to exhibitors, please email akduski@alz.org or call 312.377.6636.

What’s the refund policy?

Attendees can request refunds until August 31, 2022. No refunds will be given for any cancellations received after this date. A $25 administrative charge will apply for all cancellations. For questions or to request a refund, email conference@mind.uci.edu or call 949.824.9475. No half-day registrations or partial CEUs will be provided.

Do I need to provide proof of registration?

You will receive an email confirming your registration. Please present the email in print or on a mobile device at conference check-in. Professionals requiring CEUs will need to check in at the Professional Registration table. Be sure to have your license number available. Exhibitors will need to check in at the Exhibitor Registration table.

Are there any COVID-19 policies?

We are continuously monitoring public health updates and will notify attendees if any COVID-19 related guidance comes out. We will abide by any local and federal ordinances in place at the time of the conference.

Will I be photographed and/or recorded?

As part of the 33rd Annual Southern California Alzheimer’s Disease Research Conference, you may be photographed or you may be recorded on audio and/or video. These items may be used in promotion of future conferences or in other marketing related to the conference. Your in-person attendance at this event implies your consent to be photographed or recorded.

How will I know how to login for the virtual platform?

Attendees who register for the virtual component of the conference will receive an email with instructions a few days before the event with helpful information and tips for successful viewing.

What happens if my internet goes out?

UCI MIND, AlzOC, and Alzheimer’s Association Orange County Chapter shall not be held liable for any disruption in internet telecommunications during the event that is beyond the parties’ control. If you need technical assistance, contact Freddy Romero at (951) 240-2296 or freddy.romero@alzoc.org

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