Ayal Ben-Zvi is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prof. Ben-Zvi did his Ph.D on neural development and axonal guidance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During his post-doctoral studies, at Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Prof. Chenghua Gu, he studied aspects of BBB developmental and uncovered mechanisms regulating transcytosis. Since 2014 his group is studying brain barriers in the context of development, physiology and pathophysiology, and pioneering the use of Super-Resolution microscopy as a robust approach for discovery of unique barrier structures.

Talk title : Applications of Single Molecule Localization Microscopy (SMLM) in BBB research – discovery of unique barrier structures

Prof. Maoz is a faculty member at the Sagol School of Neuroscience and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Maoz did his Ph.D on nano-optics in the School of Chemistry at Tel Aviv. During his post-doctoral studies, at Harvard University, in Prof. Don Ingber and Kit Parker, he developed Organ-on-a-Chip platforms for studying human relevant physiology.
Prof. Maoz received number of prestigious fellowships, awards and honors, such as the Harvard-Wyss Technology Fellowship, Azrieli Fellowship for Academic Excellence and Leadership, ERC grant, recently he was chosen by “The Marker” as the most promising 40 under 40 and he gave a talk in the first metaverse TedX

Talk title : coming soon

Dr Axel Montagne joined the UK Dementia Research Institute at Edinburgh in 2020. He completed his PhD degree at the University of Caen Normandy (France), followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. His career has focused on how cerebrovascular dysfunctions contribute to neurodegeneration and dementia in both animal models and humans. In his UK DRI program, he combines molecular approaches with rodent non-invasive imaging, particularly MRI and microscopy techniques, to study the causes and effects of blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction, with a particular focus on the Endothelium-Pericyte-Immune tripartite interactions, in the context of neurodegenerative disease. Dr Montagne’s work is supported by the UK DRI, principally funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), and additional funding partners (Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society UK, and British Heart Foundation). In addition, Dr Montagne was awarded the 2021 SCOR Young European Researcher Prize for his research into Alzheimer’s disease and a MRC Career Development Award in 2022.

Talk title : Cerebrovascular Dynamics in Dementia: Unravelling the Tripartite Crosstalk between the Endothelium, Pericytes, and Microglia

M.Sc. in chemistry and biotechnology from Aarhus University in 1992, PhD in medical science from Aarhus University, 1996. Employed as professor at Department Biomedicine, Health, Aarhus University.

Talk title : Receptor trafficking at the blood brain barrier