Thursday, October 3 – 08:15 AM ET

Gordon Mathieson Invited Lecture
Dr. Gabor Kovacs

Gabor G. Kovacs MD PhD is Professor of Neuropathology and Neurology at the University of Toronto. He is Consultant Neuropathologist and Neurologist at the University Health Network (UHN) and a Principal Investigator at the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease. Dr. Kovacs is the Co-Director of the Rossy Program for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Research.

Dr. Kovacs completed his medical training at the Semmelweis University (Budapest, Hungary) where he specialized in Neurology and Neuropathology and obtained a PhD in Neuroscience. From 2004 to 2007, he was the Head of the Department of Neuropathology at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Budapest, Hungary. From 2007 to 2019, he was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Neurology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He was the leader of the Hungarian (2004-2019) and Austrian (2011-2019) Reference Center for Human Prion Diseases. Dr. Kovacs has also trained at Indiana University (2007) and University of Pennsylvania (2016 and 2017) as a visiting professor/scholar. His major research interest is the neuropathology of neurodegenerative diseases to identify early biomarkers and therapy targets. His achievements
include first descriptions, characterization and pathogenic elucidation of several poorly recognized neurological diseases, including frontotemporal dementia with globular glial inclusions and ageing-related tau-astrogliopathy (ARTAG). He coordinated a study and described the sequential distribution of tau pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy, which allows staging of disease. In addition, Dr. Kovacs has made fundamental advances in the pathogenic, genetic, neuropathologic and epidemiologic studies on human tau, alpha-synuclein and prion diseases.

Friday, October 4 – 09:45 AM ET

Invited Lecture
Dr. Uri Tabori

Bio to come

Friday, October 4 – 9:45 AM ET

Invited Lecture
Dr. Mary Jane Lim-Fat, University of Toronto

Dr Mary Jane Lim-Fat is a neuro-oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a clinician investigator at the University of Toronto. She co-leads the Canadian Adolescent and Young Adult Neuro-Oncology Network and is the Young Investigator representative on the Society for Neuro-Oncology Board of Directors. Dr Lim-Fat’s research interest are on precision oncology for brain tumor patients, in particular young adults.

Saturday, October 5 – 8:00 AM ET

David Robertson Guest Lecture
Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, UCSF

Dr. Arnold Kriegstein received his BA from Yale University and his MD and PhD degrees from New York University in 1977. He subsequently completed residency training in Neurology at the Brigham and Women’s, Children’s, and Beth Israel Hospitals in Boston. He held academic appointments at Stanford, Yale, and Columbia Universities before joining the Neurology Department at UC San Francisco In 2004. He was the Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF. Dr. Kriegstein’s research focuses on the way in which neural stem and progenitor cells in the embryonic brain produce neurons, and ways in which this information can be used for cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the nervous system. He is a co-founder of Neurona Therapeutics which is beginning a clinical trial using cell therapy to treat epilepsy..

Saturday, October 5 – 08:50 AM ET

Jerzy Olszewski Guest Lecture
Dr. Maryam Faiz, University of Toronto

Dr. Maryam Faiz was born outside Washington DC. She completed her undergrad at the University of St Andrews in the UK. She then went to Barcelona (mostly for soccer) but also received her PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Tired of all the fun, beach and sun, she then moved to Sweden and trained with Milos Pekny at the University of Goteborg. She managed to then make her way somewhere even colder and worked under Dr. Andras Nagy at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto. She started her lab in this city at the University of Toronto in 2017.

She now is Mom to two mini-Canadians who are “onboarding her” under the guise of teaching her to ice skate and canoe. Every day, after packing their lunches and battling them to put on their shoes, she heads to the lab to study astrocytes. She believes these cells may hold the key to brain repair. Her lab is interested in astrocyte heterogeneity and how it is established, the roles of astrocytes in the injured/diseased brain, and how this knowledge can inform future therapeutic interventions.

Today, she will talk to you about a study of astrocyte diversity after an ischemic injury. Spoiler alert: she is also fascinated by the gut-brain axis and how
the gut can mediate recovery from brain injury, which, stay tuned, may turn out to involve astrocytes! 

Saturday, October 5 – 10:00 AM ET

Invited Lecture
Dr. Brittany Dugger, UC Davis School of Medicine

Dr. Dugger is overwhelmingly excited and honored to contribute fundamental knowledge to precision medicine approaches to aid in creating better biomarkers, therapies, and models of human diseases for all individuals.
Throughout her career she has led, enabled, and enhanced many cross disciplinary projects, resulting in more than 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts and numerous private, state, and federally funded grants. Dr. Dugger earned her Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University. She went on to obtain her PhD from Mayo Clinic Graduate School, where she became fascinated by the selective vulnerability of neuropathologies and disease heterogeneity. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship, being promoted to an independent staff scientist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute, aiding in a research-based human autopsy program. In 2015, she was recruited to serve as the neuropathology core leader for academic and drug discovery groups at the University of California San Francisco. In 2017, she joined the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, Davis (UCD), and is currently an associate professor with tenure. In addition to running her own laboratory, she is the neuropathology core leader of the UCD-Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) and department Liaison for the Women in Medical and Health Sciences. Dr. Dugger is involved in many national endeavors, including the College of American Pathologists Neuropathology Committee and is the chair of the ADRC Neuropathology Core Steering Committee. She has extensive expertise in cross disciplinary dialog development and maintenance, data harmonization/amalgamation, mentorship, sponsorship, advocacy, and administrative execution and oversight.

Saturday, October 5 – 10:50 AM ET

Invited Lecture
Dr. Sandra Camelo-Piragua, University of Michigan

Dr. Sandra Camelo-Piragua is a Clinical Professor of Pathology and the Neuropathology Fellowship Program Director at the University of Michigan. She obtained her M.D. from Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. This was followed by a postdoctoral research fellow at the Laboratory of Transcriptional and Immune Regulation for Neurodegenerative diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. She obtained her AP/CP training at Baystate Medical Center, Western Campus of Tufts Medical School, Springfield, MA.
This was followed by a Neuropathology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. She joined the clinical faculty at University of Michigan in 2010. Her clinical interests include neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions of the CNs, molecular classification of brain tumors, and neuromuscular conditions affecting peripheral nerves and muscles in adult and pediatric population.

Her academic interest focuses on the implementation of telepathology, non-destructive optical imaging technologies, ex-vivo microscopy, and image analysis. Dr. Camelo-Piragua is an active member of AANP, serving as Vice-President for 2025. She is also member of Digital and Computational Pathology Committee at the College of American Pathologists.

Saturday, October 5 – 11:40 AM ET

Invited Lecture
Dr. Matthew Cecchini, Western University

Dr. Matthew Cecchini is an Associate Professor of Pathology at London Health Sciences Centre and Western University. He completed his anatomical pathology training at Western University, followed by a fellowship in pulmonary pathology at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Cecchini specializes in digital pathology and AI, focusing on integrating advanced technologies like AI-driven image analysis to enhance diagnostics and patient care. He collaborates across various fields to drive innovation in pathology and is dedicated to educating and mentoring future pathologists.