Neurodegeneration, Aging & Cognitive Disorders

Session Overview

Neurodegenerative and acquired brain diseases that erode cognition, movement, and neurological function represent the most pressing unmet challenge in clinical neuroscience. As global populations age, the burden of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease, and related conditions is escalating at a pace that existing healthcare systems are ill-prepared to absorb. This session brings together neurologists, neuropathologists, translational neuroscientists, biomarker researchers, and clinical trialists to examine the molecular mechanisms, diagnostic innovations, and emerging therapeutic strategies that are defining the frontier of neurodegeneration research in 2027.

This session features a keynote lecture, four oral presentations, and a poster presentation segment spanning the full spectrum of neurodegenerative disease — from fundamental neuropathology and biomarker science through to disease-modifying therapeutic development and the clinical management of patients across the disease continuum.

Why This Session Matters Now

After decades of clinical trial failures, the field of neurodegeneration is experiencing a pivotal and cautiously optimistic transition. Disease-modifying therapies targeting amyloid and tau pathology in Alzheimer’s disease have achieved regulatory approval for the first time, fundamentally reshaping clinical expectations and creating new urgency around early and accurate diagnosis. Fluid biomarker science — leveraging plasma and cerebrospinal fluid measures of neurodegeneration — is enabling disease detection years before symptom onset, opening a therapeutic window that was previously inaccessible. In Parkinson’s disease, alpha-synuclein seeding amplification assays and neuroimaging biomarkers are transforming diagnostic accuracy and enabling patient stratification for disease-modifying trials. Across the neurodegeneration field, the convergence of biomarker innovation, genetic discovery, and mechanistic understanding is creating conditions for a therapeutic renaissance that makes 2027 a particularly consequential moment for this research community.

Key Scientific & Technical Themes

Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyloid, Tau & the Path to Disease Modification

Alzheimer’s disease research has entered a new chapter defined by the clinical translation of amyloid-targeting immunotherapies and the urgent questions of patient selection, treatment monitoring, and risk-benefit assessment that their deployment has raised. The amyloid cascade hypothesis, while validated as a therapeutic target, has revealed the complexity of disease biology — with tau propagation, neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and vascular contributions each playing critical roles in determining clinical trajectory. Tau pathology, including the staging of neurofibrillary tangle spread and the development of tau-targeting therapies, represents an active and rapidly advancing therapeutic frontier. This theme examines the mechanistic biology of Alzheimer’s disease, the clinical trial evidence for disease-modifying interventions, the neuropsychological and functional outcomes that matter to patients and caregivers, and the healthcare system implications of a new era of disease-modifying treatment.

Parkinson’s Disease, Movement Disorders & Synucleinopathies

Parkinson’s disease and the broader family of synucleinopathies — including multiple system atrophy, dementia with Lewy bodies, and progressive supranuclear palsy — present a spectrum of clinical, pathological, and genetic heterogeneity that continues to challenge both diagnosis and therapeutic development. Alpha-synuclein biology, including its aggregation, propagation, and interaction with lysosomal and mitochondrial dysfunction, remains central to mechanistic understanding and drug target identification. The genetic architecture of Parkinson’s disease, encompassing monogenic forms and polygenic risk, is informing precision medicine approaches to patient stratification and trial design. Huntington’s disease, as a paradigmatic monogenic neurodegenerative condition with defined genetic cause and predictable onset, offers a unique model for disease-modification trial design and has generated insights applicable across the neurodegeneration field. This theme covers the neuropathology, biomarkers, genetics, and therapeutic landscape of movement disorders and synucleinopathies.

Neuroinflammation, Neuroimmunology & Multiple Sclerosis

The recognition of neuroinflammation as a critical driver — rather than merely a consequence — of neurodegeneration has transformed the conceptual landscape of the field and opened new therapeutic avenues. Microglial biology, the complement system, and the role of peripheral immune cell infiltration in modulating neurodegenerative progression are active areas of mechanistic investigation with direct therapeutic implications. Multiple sclerosis represents the most clinically advanced intersection of neuroimmunology and neurodegeneration, with a diverse and rapidly expanding therapeutic armamentarium and growing interest in neuroprotective and remyelination strategies beyond immunomodulation. Traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy — characterized by distinct but overlapping neuroinflammatory and tau pathology signatures — are increasingly recognized as risk factors for later neurodegenerative disease, with implications for both clinical management and neuroprotective intervention. This theme examines neuroimmune mechanisms, the neurology of MS, and the intersection of acquired brain injury with long-term neurodegeneration risk.

Fluid Biomarkers, Neuroimaging & Early Detection

The transformation of neurodegenerative disease diagnosis from a clinical syndromic exercise to a biology-driven process is being enabled by a new generation of fluid and imaging biomarkers with the sensitivity to detect pathological change years before clinical symptom expression. Plasma biomarkers including phosphorylated tau, neurofilament light chain, and glial fibrillary acidic protein are demonstrating performance characteristics that may enable population-scale screening and therapeutic trial enrichment without the cost and invasiveness of cerebrospinal fluid sampling or amyloid PET imaging. Advanced neuroimaging modalities — structural MRI volumetry, functional connectivity analysis, and molecular PET imaging for amyloid, tau, and neuroinflammation — are providing in vivo windows into the progressive anatomical and biochemical changes that define neurodegeneration. Vascular dementia and post-stroke cognitive impairment represent major contributors to the global dementia burden that are frequently underrepresented in biomarker research, and this theme encompasses the full diagnostic biomarker landscape across the dementias.

Cognitive Reserve, Brain Aging, Caregiving & Quality of Life

Not all individuals with equivalent pathological burden experience equivalent clinical decline — the concept of cognitive reserve, encompassing education, occupational complexity, bilingualism, and social engagement, encodes a biological and behavioral reality with profound implications for prevention, prognosis, and individualized care planning. Research into the modifiable determinants of brain aging — vascular risk factors, sleep quality, physical activity, diet, and social connection — is generating an evidence base for dementia prevention interventions that complement biomarker-guided therapeutic approaches. The experience of patients living with cognitive impairment and the enormous burden carried by family caregivers are dimensions of neurodegeneration that demand rigorous scientific attention alongside biological research. Palliative neurology, advance care planning, and the development of outcome measures that capture what matters to patients and families are integral components of a comprehensive research agenda. This theme addresses the full person and population dimensions of cognitive aging, reserve, prevention, caregiving, and quality of life in neurodegenerative disease.

Research Landscape & Data Trends

Neurodegeneration research is one of the most prolific and rapidly evolving domains in all of biomedical science, driven by the intersection of an aging global population, unprecedented private and public research investment, and a series of recent scientific breakthroughs that have renewed therapeutic optimism after decades of clinical setbacks. The biomarker literature has expanded dramatically in recent years, particularly around blood-based Alzheimer’s biomarkers, and is transitioning from discovery toward clinical validation and implementation. Genetic studies, including large-scale genome-wide association analyses and whole-genome sequencing initiatives, continue to reveal new risk loci and causal mechanisms. The therapeutic pipeline across Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS has never been more diverse, with disease-modifying, symptomatic, and neuroprotective approaches in concurrent development. By 2027, the integration of multi-modal biomarker data, digital phenotyping, and machine learning for patient stratification and trial design is expected to represent a defining methodological frontier.

Who Should Attend

Neurologists and cognitive neurologists managing patients across the spectrum of neurodegenerative disease
Neuropathologists and molecular neuroscientists investigating disease mechanisms and pathological staging
Translational researchers developing and validating fluid and imaging biomarkers for neurodegeneration
Clinical trialists and drug development scientists designing and executing disease-modification studies
Neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists assessing cognitive function and functional outcomes
Geriatricians and old age psychiatrists managing cognitive impairment in aging populations
Neuroradiologists and nuclear medicine specialists applying advanced neuroimaging in diagnosis and research
Neuroimmunologists and MS specialists working at the intersection of inflammation and neurodegeneration
Genetic counselors and clinical geneticists working with familial and monogenic neurodegenerative disease
Caregiving researchers, palliative care specialists, and patient advocates engaged with quality of life outcomes

Session Perspective

Neurodegeneration research stands at a genuinely transformative moment. The first disease-modifying treatments have arrived, biomarker science is enabling earlier and more precise diagnosis than ever before, and the mechanistic understanding of disease biology is deepening at pace. Yet the gap between scientific progress and the lived experience of patients and families with neurodegenerative disease remains vast, and the translation of laboratory and clinical trial advances into equitable, accessible, and meaningful care improvement remains the ultimate measure of success. This session invites the full community of neurodegeneration researchers — from molecular biologists to clinical trialists to caregiving scientists — to share the work that is closing that gap.

If your research aligns with this session, we invite you to submit an abstract for consideration.