From newark.rutgers.edu

Two Rutgers professors, both leading Alzheimer’s disease researchers, have partnered with Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University to organize the US-Israel Alzheimer’s Disease Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The brainchild of Mark Gluck, professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers University-Newark and Michal Schnaider Beeri, professor of Neurology at Rutgers, the conference brings together leading Alzheimer’s researcher from both countries to expand collaboration and cooperation between US and Israeli scientists seeking a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. It will be held September 22.

The two Israeli co-organizers of the conference are both internationally respected leaders in Alzheimer’s research: Illana Gozes, a molecular neuroendocrinologist at Tel Aviv University and Hermona Soreq, a molecular neuroscientist at Hebrew University.

“The fight to cure Alzheimer’s disease cuts across national and political divisions,” said Gluck, “providing us with common goals and targets on which we can all work together.”

Gozes added,“We aim to strengthen the ties of Alzheimer’s researchers in Israel and the U.S., promoting young scientists and collaborative efforts toward a brighter future of excellent research, disease management, and preventive measures.”

This is the third brain research conference that Dr. Gluck has organized in Israel. The first two were in 2005 and 2008.

Gluck and Beeri are currently fundraising to support travel fellowships for Rutgers undergraduate and graduate students to attend this meeting to present scientific posters on their own research studies relating to aging, brain health, and Alzheimer’s disease.

“We hope to send Rutgers students to this meeting so that they can come back not only scientifically enriched,” said Gluck, “but also culturally and globally enriched.”

With additional funding, Gluck and Beeri hope to expand the competition for these travel fellowships to students from other universities, as well.

In addition to the four co-organizers, the speakers in September include Michal Schwartz from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot; Amos Korczyn of Tel Aviv University; Gil Rabinovici of the University of California, San Francisco; David Bennet of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago; Mary Sano from Mount Sinai School of Medicine; and Sudha Seshadri from the University of Texas.

Gluck and Beeri hope to leverage this meeting to bring more Israeli students to Rutgers and other U.S. universities in the future as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows where they can receive advanced training in neuroscience and neurology.

“The real engines of collaboration tend to be the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, not senior faculty,” Gluck pointed out. “As such we will also be creating what is basically a job fair for Israel students.”

Starting in the summer of 2025, Gluck and Beeri plan to run a new international educational exchange program for Rutgers students, known as Brainright Israel. It will send Rutgers students to brain research labs in Israel for summer internships to gain valuable research skills and learn more about the global fight to cure Alzheimers disease.

Find more information on the September US-Israel Alzheimers’ Disease Conference, including a list of the speakers and titles here.