Welcome addresses

Anja Steinbeck, President, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany

Sebastian M. Schmidt, Member of the Board of Directors for Scientific Division I, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany

Michael Lorrain, Chairman Alzheimer Forschung Initiative e.V., Düsseldorf, Germany

Characterization of the novel APP "Uppsala" mutation – causing an early onset form of Alzheimer’s disease,

Martin Ingelsson, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Sweden

Post-translational modifications of amyloid beta peptides in distinct aggregation pathways and the progression of Alzheimer's disease,

Jochen Walter, Department of Neurology, University of Bonn, Germany

Direct elimination of Aβ oligomers by the orally available clinical stage anti-prionic compound PRI-002 reverses cognition deficits and decelerates neurodegeneration in AD animal models,

Dieter Willbold, Institut für Physikalische Biologie, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and ICS-6: Structural Biochemistry, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

Environmental pollutants induce neurodegeneration via the gut-neural axis,

Annette Piechulek, IUF - Leibniz Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf,  Germany
Talk by early career scientist

Seeded protein aggregation as the defining mechanism in Alzheimer’s disease,

Lary C. Walker, Department of Neurology and Yerkes Center, Emory University, Atlanta, USA

Conformers of assembled tau,

Michel Goedert, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK

Protein fibrils in infectious and aggregation diseases,

Meytal Landau, Department of Biology, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

N-terminal truncated Abeta4-42 is a substrate for neprilysin degradation in vitro and in vivo,
Silvia Zampar, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany

Talk by early career scientist

Neue Wirkstoffe gegen Alzheimer – Ist Heilung in Sicht?

Oliver Peters, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Biomarkers for neurodegenerative disease gleaned through brain-derived blood exosomes,

Gal Bitan, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Aggregation kinetics to study biological strain diversity in neurodegenerative diseases,

Inga Zerr, Clinical Dementia Center, Dpt. of Neurology, University Medical School, Georg-August University, Göttingen and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Germany

Towards translation in frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson's disease,

Alice S. Chen-Plotkin, Parker Family Associate Professor of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

A role of linear ubiquitination in protein quality control: Implications for neurodegenerative diseases,

Konstanze F. Winklhofer, Molecular Cell Biology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

14:20

The intrinsically disordered N-terminal domain of the prion protein as an integrator of neuroprotective and neurotoxic signaling,

Jörg Tatzelt, Department Biochemistry of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

Loss of protein quality control in sporadic Alzheimer's disease – does it start with altered ubiquitin signaling?

Michael H. Glickman, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel and
Fred van Leeuwen, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Autophagy pathways in stress response and neurodegenerative disease,

Christian Behl, University Medical Center Mainz, Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

AFI Funding Opportunities,

Jochen Walter, University of Bonn, Germany

Translating structural biology into disease prophylaxis: Rationally designed, structure-based vaccines for Prion disease and other neurodegenerative diseases?

Holger Wille, Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases & Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Axonal pathology at amyloid plaques and its relevance for preventive therapeutical approaches,

Jochen Herms, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Center for Neuropathology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany

Structure-activity relationship by kinetics for drug discovery in protein misfolding diseases,

Michele Vendruscolo, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK

Structures of Amyloids: From the origin to the end of life,

Roland Riek, Biological Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Applied Sciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Panel discussion

1. Do we really know what causes AD?
2. New treatments for AD, is Aβ still viable? Do we need to focus on Tau? Or something else altogether?
3. Do Aβ and/or Tau assemblies behave prion-like?

Closing remarks,

Thomas van Groen and Dieter Willbold, organizing committee