Johanna Jackson

Advanced Research Fellow, Imperial College London

Jo Jackson is an Advanced Research Fellow, Alzheimer's Society Dementia Research Leader, the first recipient of the Alzheimer's Society's Carol Jennings Fellowship and a UK DRI Emerging Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute centre at Imperial. Her group takes a multi-‘omic and imaging approach to provide a mechanistic insight into the vulnerability of synaptic components in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). This enables her group to identify and test molecular targets to achieve the vision of therapeutically targeting the synapse in AD.

Dr Jackson completed her PhD at Imperial College and post docs at Lund University and Imperial. She gained extensive experience studying synaptic integration in models of axonal injury and epilepsy. She then joined Eli Lilly where she established an in vivo two-photon imaging platform to characterise synaptic changes and other disease processes in pre-clinical models of AD. Her group was the first to simultaneously image both pre- and post-synaptic components as the pathology prgresses. At Lilly, she co-chaired their Neuroplasticity Drug Discovery platform and proposed ways to therapeutically target the synapse in AD.

Since returning to Imperial, Dr Jackson has led the UK DRI Multi-‘omics Atlas Project; an open resource mapping the cellular pathology of AD. This project has involved establishing a comprehensive multi-'omic atlas characterising the pathology of human Alzheimer's Disease and in cohorts with genetic risk variants. More information can be found at map-ad.org.

Her current work aims to investigate selective vulnerability of pre- vs post-synaptic components and to understand mechanisms of their vulnerability such as protein synthesis or degradation. This will be used to determine the impact of repurposed drugs on these vulnerabilities and finally to validate biomarkers to track synaptic changes through disease or to determine drug efficacy. This allows her group to understand the mechanisms of synaptopathy and, as the loss of synapses closely correlates with cognitive decline in AD, start to develop a synapse-targeting treatment for therapeutic benefit.

Her work is supported by the Hamilton Neal Fund, the Alzheimer's Society, the Brightfocus Foundation, the Rosetrees Trust and the UK Dementia Research Institue which is principally funded by the Medical Research Council.

Dr Jackson is also the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead for the Department of Brain Sciences.

Pranab Kalita

Head of Clinical Development, Experimental Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim

Dr. Pranab Kalita is the Head of Clinical Development, Experimental Medicine with Global Neuroscience & Mental Health team at Boehringer Ingelheim. He is trained in Medicine, Psychiatry & Public Health and has worked in Clinical Development and Medical Affairs in Psychiatry, Neurology & Respiratory Medicine internationally and with multiple pharmaceutical companies as Pfizer, J&J, Lundbeck, GSK, Haleon and currently at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Will Gawned

UKRN

Will qualified as a biologist, educator and creative writer, and is an experienced improv theatre instructor and performer. He has worked in University professional services in Australia and the UK since 2000, and with UKRN since 2019 initially in the role of administrator and as community manager since 2023. In his current role he fosters community activity, especially with the Local Network Lead member group, facilitating meetings and events, and leads on the UKRN Ground-Up project. Will is interested in fostering effective human connection for collaboration, the role of reproducibility in performance arts, and games-based approaches to learning.