Christian Haass
Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
Christian Haass is known for his pioneering work on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. He is Professor of Metabolic Biochemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and site speaker/research group leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Munich, where his lab has elucidated key roles of beta-amyloid, beta-secretase, and microglial genes such as TREM2 in Alzheimer pathogenesis. Over his more than 30-year career, he has received many major awards, including the Leibniz Prize and the Brain Prize, and is widely regarded as one of the leading Alzheimer researchers worldwide.
Ruth Stassart
Leipzig University
Ruth Stassart is a German neuropathologist and professor of translational neuropathology at Leipzig University and director of the Paul Flechsig Institute for Brain Research. Her research focuses on neuromuscular diseases and peripheral neuropathies, investigating how different cell types in the neuromuscular system interact and how local cellular defects propagate to cause progressive paralysis, using mouse models, high‑resolution electron microscopy, and single-cell transcriptomics. She has received major competitive funding, including an ERC Starting Grant of about 1.5 million euros to study cellular and molecular mechanisms of neuromuscular disease.
Alexandra Stolz
Goethe University Frankfurt
Alexandra Stolz is junior group leader at the Buchman Institute for Molecular Life Sciences in Frankfurt. She contributed to identifying key autophagy receptors like FAM134B, developed fluorescent sensors for LC3/GABARAPs, and later studied oncogene-induced secretion at Genentech. Since 2018, she has led the phenotypic screening platform at Frankfurt Competence Center of Emerging Therapeutics and, from 2021, the ER quality control group at BMLS, focusing on chemical modulators of selective autophagy through EUbOPEN.
