MIND THE DATA
Search for Gender Based Differences In Alzheimer’s Disease
Marietta Anthony, PhD
Dr. Anthony’s expertise is in women’s health and drug development. She is a board member for Arizona
CERT, a non-profit research and education organization. Previously, she was director of Women’s Health
Programs for the Critical Path Institute and held senior positions in women’s health research and clinical
research at Georgetown University Medical Center. Earlier, she was director of research programs in the
National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health; deputy director of the FDA Office of
Women’s Health; and managed expert panels on developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines
at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Marietta Anthony obtained a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the UCLA School of Medicine where she conducted research on viruses that cause cancer. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biological Chemistry at UCLA.
Marietta Anthony, PhD
She has worked on health policy at three federal agencies. At the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Dr. Anthony managed expert panels that developed evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on HIV/AIDS and mammography. At the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), she was the Deputy Director of the Office of Women’s Health and also served as director of the FDA women’s health research program. At the National Institutes of Health, she was the Director of Research Programs in the Office of Research on Women’s Health. After leaving the federal government, Dr. Anthony joined the Department of Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center as Director of Women’s Health Research and Assistant Director of the General Clinical Research Center. At The University of Arizona, she was the founder and Director of the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. She served as chair of the Governor’s Commission on the Health Status of Women and Families in Arizona. From 2006 to 2012 she was Director of Women’s Health Programs for the Critical Path Institute. She currently is a member of the Board of Directors of AZCERT.Dr. Anthony’s skills are in building programs and her expertise is in women’s health and drug development. She has worked on a variety of women’s health issues and has served on numerous national committees and advisory boards on women’s health.
Janine Austin Clayton, MD
Janine Austin Clayton, M.D., is the Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Associate Director for Research on Women’s Health, NIH, in the NIH Office of the Director.
She is the author of over 80 scientific publications, journal articles, and book chapters. Prior to joining the Office of Research on Women’s Health, she was the Deputy Clinical Director of the National Eye Institute (NEI), NIH. A board certified ophthalmologist, Dr. Clayton’s research interests include autoimmune ocular diseases and the role of sex and gender in health and disease. Dr. Clayton has a particular interest in ocular surface disease and discovered a novel form of disease associated with premature ovarian insufficiency which affects young women.
Janine Austin Clayton, MD
A native Washingtonian, Dr. Clayton received her undergraduate degree with Honors from the Johns Hopkins University, and her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine. She completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Medical
College of Virginia and fellowship training in Cornea and External Disease at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and in Uveitis and Ocular Immunology at NEI. Dr. Clayton has been an attending physician and clinical investigator in cornea and
uveitis at the NEI since 1996, conducting research on inflammatory diseases of the anterior segment. Her clinical research has ranged from randomized controlled trials of novel therapies for immune mediated ocular diseases to studies on the development of digital imaging techniques for the anterior segment.
Dr. Clayton is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. She currently serves on the FDA Advisory Panel for Ophthalmic Devices; the medical and scientific advisory board of Tissue Banks International; and the editorial board of The Ocular Surface. She was selected as a Silver Fellow by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology and a recipient of the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Dr. Clayton has received several awards from her NIH peers in recognition of her leadership. She co-chairs the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers with the NIH Director.
Howard Martin Fillit, MD
A geriatrician and neuroscientist, Dr. Fillit is founding executive director and chief science officer
of the Institute for the Study of Aging, an Estée Lauder family foundation, and Alzheimer’s Drug
Discovery Foundation, a public charity. Both work to accelerate drug discovery for Alzheimer’s and
related dementias through venture philanthropy. He is a clinical professor of geriatrics, medicine
and neuroscience at The Rockefeller University and The Mount Sinai School of Medicine. His geriatric
medicine practice focuses on Alzheimer’s. He is author of more than 300 scientific/clinical publications
and senior editor of the leading international Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.
Howard Martin Fillit, MD
Howard Fillit, MD, a geriatrician and neuroscientist, is the founding Executive Director and member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Study of Aging (ISOA), a private foundation based in New York City established by the Estee Lauder Trust in 1998 dedicated to accelerating drug discovery and development for Alzheimer’s disease. In 2004, he was founding executive director for an ISOA affiliated public charity, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), created to enable partnerships with individuals, foundations, industry and government. In 2012, he was the founding President of ADDF-Canada. Since 1998, ISOA and ADDF have provided over $60MM to over 400 academic and biotechnology programs in 19 countries.
Dr. Fillit is an internationally recognized leader in geriatric medicine and Alzheimer’s disease with over 35 years career experience in academia and industry. Dr. Fillit currently holds the title of clinical professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine, medicine, and neuroscience at The Mount Sinai Medical Center (NY). He received his BA in neurobiology cum laude from Cornell University, and his MD from the SUNY-Upstate Medical University. He received his clinical training at the Beth Israel Medical Center (NYC) and the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. From 1976 to 1987, Dr. Fillit was a fellow and assistant professor at The Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Professor Maclyn McCarty (who demonstrated in 1944 that DNA is the molecule that carries the genes of life, enabling the discovery in 1953 of the DNA double helix by Watson and Crick). In 1987, he joined the Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai, established as the first department of geriatrics in the United States in 1981 under the leadership of founding chairman Robert N. Butler, MD, who was also the founding director of the National Institute on Aging in 1976, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his book “Aging in America: Why Survive?” Dr. Fillit achieved the rank of tenured professor of geriatric medicine, medicine and neurobiology in 1992. From 1995-1998, he was the Corporate Medical Director for Medicare at NYLCare Health Plans (a division of New York Life acquired by Aetna), providing leadership for program and policy in the provision of health care to over 125,000 elderly individuals in several regional US markets. Throughout his career, he has maintained a limited private practice in consultative geriatric medicine with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Fillit has received numerous awards, including the Alzheimer’s Association’s Rita Hayworth Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific articles, abstracts and books, including the leading international Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. He has given hundreds of speeches throughout the world on topics related to research and clinical care in geriatric medicine and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Fillit has served as a member of the Board of Directors for several biotechnology companies, and has been a consultant to, member, or Chair of Scientific and Clinical Advisory Boards for numerous pharmaceutical, biotechnology and health care companies.
Dr. Florence Haseltine, MD, PhD
Dr. Haseltine is a consultant to IT and biomedical companies. Her company, Haseltine Systems,
manufactures containers to protect wheelchairs. She also develops mobile apps for reproductive
sciences, including “Embryo,” honored by the National Library of Medicine. Earlier, she was director
of the Center for Population Research of the NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development. She was founding editor of the Journal for Women’s Health and founder of the Society for
of Women’s Health Research. At Yale University she held positions in the Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology. She is the current president of the Assembly of Scientists.
Dr. Florence Haseltine, MD, PhD
Dr. Haseltine is a currently consulting with IT and biomedical companies. Her company, Haseltine Systems manufactures containers to protect wheelchairs and she holds both design and IT business patents. At heart she is a pioneer who has accepted few limits. As Director of the Center for Population Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, at the National Institutes of Health, she led the way for advances in contraception research and other critical health areas. She is a fighter and has tirelessly promoted the advancement of women and was the founding editor of the Journal for Women’s Health. In 1990 she founded the Society for the Advancement of Women’s Health Research (SWHR). She now is the Web Developer and Content Management of the RaiseProject. Retiring in 2012, she was named Emerita Director of the Center for Population Research, NIH. She has also assumed the Presidency of the Assembly of Scientists, an organization devoted to advocating the interests of the scientific research community.
Her educational background shows her range of talents and interests. In 1964 she received a B.A. in Biophysics from the University of California-Berkeley. Receiving her Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1970 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she went on to graduating with an M.D. in 1972 from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She interned at the University of Pennsylvania and did a residency at Boston Hospital for Women (Brigham & Women’s Hospital). At Yale University she held several positions in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecologist and is board certified Obstetrician/Gynecologist and Reproductive Endocrinologist. She hold multiple patents in IT internet secure communications. An early fan of electronic communications, her current activities include developing smart phone Apps for the field of Reproductive Sciences and her latest app “Embryo” is online and has received an award from the National Library of Medicine. Recently she issued the App Human Genome for the iPad.
Freda Lewis-Hall, MD
Dr. Lewis-Hall is executive vice president and chief medical officer of Pfizer Inc. Trained as a
psychiatrist, she has held leadership roles in academia, medical research, front-line patient
care, and at global biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to her work in industry, she led research
projects for the National Institutes of Health and was vice chairperson of the Department of
Psychiatry at Howard University College of Medicine. She serves on numerous boards. In 2010,
she was appointed by the Obama Administration to the inaugural Board of Governors for the
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and in 2012 she was appointed chair of the Cures
Acceleration Network Review Board.
Freda Lewis-Hall, MD
Freda Lewis-Hall is the chief medical officer of Pfizer Inc. Trained as a psychiatrist, she has held leadership roles in academia, medical research, front-line patient care, and at global biopharmaceutical companies including Vertex, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly. Prior to her work in industry, she led research projects for the National Institutes of Health and was vice chairperson of the Department of Psychiatry at Howard University College of Medicine.
In 2010, Dr. Lewis-Hall was appointed by the Obama Administration to the inaugural Board of Governors for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and in 2012 she was appointed chair of the Cures Acceleration Network Review Board and a member of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative and on numerous other boards, including those of Harvard Medical School, The Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation, and Save the Children.
Dr. Lewis-Hall has been named as one of Savoy’s Top Influential Women in Corporate America in 2012 and was selected as the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association 2011 “Woman of the Year.” A passionate advocate for empowering patients through health information, Dr. Lewis-Hall speaks frequently in venues from TEDMED to the Essence Music Festival and appears regularly on the Emmy-winning daytime syndicated show, The Doctors.
Dr. Lenore Launer (NIH/NIA)
Dr. Launer is a Senior Investigator in the Intramural Research Program, the National Institute on Aging. She is Chief of the Neuroepidemiology Section in the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Studies. The Neuroepidemiology Section research focuses on understanding the contribution of genetic, inflammatory, metabolic, vascular, and hormonal factors to sub-clinical and clinical outcomes in brain disease and investigating the links between brain disease and other common diseases of old age. Dr.Launer is PI and Co-PI on several large cohort studies designed to take a life course approach to investigating the development of late age brain disease. Her research is conducted in the context of these large studies where hypotheses on risk/protective factors and mechanisms for brain disease tested, with the aim of identifying public health approaches to preventing late age cognitive impairment. She has authored over 350 articles and book chapters and is a member of the Steering Committees and Work Groups of several large NIH Prevention Trials.
Michelle M. Mielke, Ph.D
Dr. Mielke received a Bachelor’s of Science in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate in Psychiatric/NeuroEpidemiology from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She then completed a two-year fellowship as the Lydia Gillespie Clinical and Research Post-doctoral Fellow in Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dr. Mielke is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences Research, Division of Epidemiology, and the Department of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Mielke works as a translational epidemiologist to further understanding of the etiology and epidemiology of neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders. A primary focus of her research is the identification and clinical translation of fluid and neuroimaging biomarkers for the diagnosis, prediction, and/or progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Much of her work has emphasized the utility of blood-based lipids, especially the role of sphingolipids (ceramides and sphingomyelins) in the development of AD, Parkinson’s disease, and Lewy Body Dementia. Dr. Mielke is the PI of several NIH- and Foundation-funded clinical- and epidemiological-based grants examining blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. Dr. Mielke also works to understand the sex differences in the epidemiology of neurodegenerative conditions and is a co-investigator of the Mayo Clinic Specialized Center of Research on Sex Differences.
Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH
Dr. Rabins’ career has focused on the study of psychiatric disorders in older persons. His research
focuses on the effectiveness of current therapies for Alzheimer disease, development of measures of
quality of life in persons with Alzheimer disease, and care of patients with late-stage dementia. He has
been a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty member since 1978. He is Professor in the Department
of Psychiatry and director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry. He is the author
of more than 275 articles and book chapters. He is co-author of The 36 Hour Day (now in its 5th edition),
Practical Dementia Care and Getting Old Without Getting Anxious.
Alan J. Russell, PhD
Dr. Russell has contributed to the interface between chemistry, biology, and material science. He is
the Highmark Distinguished Career Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Earlier, he was founding
director of the University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. He is executive
director of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, founder of three biotechnology companies and
has been a scientific adviser to FDA and the Department of Defense. He is editor-in-chief of Disruptive
Science and Technology. He was founding president of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative
Medicine International Society and a past chair of the American Institute for Medical and Biological
Engineering College of Fellows.
Alan J. Russell, PhD
Dr. Alan Russell (PhD in Biological Chemistry, 1987, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London) is the Highmark Distinguished Career Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Russell holds appointments in the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems and the Department of Bioengineering. He was the Founding Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, serving in that capacity from 2001-2011. In addition to his appointments at the CMU, Dr. Russell is the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Highmark Inc. He has founded three biotechnology companies; ICX Agentase, NanoSembly LLC, and O2Cyte LLC, and was also the Founding President of the now 3,000+ member Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society. Dr. Russell served as Chair of the College of Fellows for the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (an elected body consisting of the top 2% of medical and bioengineers in the US) for 2012.
Dr. Russell serves on the Science Board to the Food and Drug Administration and currently is Chair of the scientific review panel for the Center for Devices and Radiologic Health. Dr. Russell has served many scientific roles for the Department of Defense, including being a member of the Defense Health Board and the founding Co-Director of the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
For the last 20 years, the Russell laboratory has been discovering what can be achieved by exploiting the rich interface of chemistry, biology and materials. Dr. Russell’s work has impacted fields as diverse as chemical and polymer synthesis to tissue engineering and homeland defense. Dr. Russell has pioneered how to make polymers from enzymes and how to incorporate enzymes into bulk polymers. In a series of discoveries Dr. Russell’s laboratory has found how to meld the synthetic and biological worlds.
Within the scientific community, Dr. Russell has participated on 24 advisory boards. Since the outset of his career, he has received numerous prestigious awards for his contributions to research, teaching and public service. These awards include R&D 100 Award – 2000 (R&D Magazine), three Carnegie Science Center Awards for Excellence – 2000 to 2006, sixteen consecutive appearances in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering – 1992 through present, the Gilbreth lectureship from the National Academy of Engineering – 2004, and the Cockroft Rutherford lectureship from the University of Manchester – 2007, the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Manchester – 2008, #32 in Rolling Stone’s “Top 100 People who will change America” – 2009, the American Chemical Society’s prestigious Pittsburgh Award – 2010, the Ladies Hospital Aid Society Doctor of Distinction Award – 2011, and the TERMIS Lifetime Achievement Award – 2012.
Dr. Russell has contributed significantly to the interface between the fields of chemistry, biology, and material science. He has given more than 250 national and international invited lectures. Dr. Russell has published over 150 articles in refereed journals, one book, and 10 book chapters and holds 14 patents, with over 25 additional pending patents. Dr. Russell is the Editor-in-Chief of Disruptive Science and Technology.