Podcast – AAIC Preview 2023

Voice Over:

Brought to you by dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk in association with Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Race Against Dementia, and The Alzheimer’s Association, bringing you research, news, career tips, and support.

Adam Smith:

Welcome to the Dementia Researcher Podcast, the show that brings you the latest insights and conversations from the world of dementia research. I’m Adam Smith, and today we have a special episode as we dive into previewing one of the most anticipated events in the dementia research calendar, the 2023 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, or AAIC. Joining me from the Alzheimer’s Association to give us the complete lowdown is the amazing Dr. Claire Sexton, Senior Director of Scientific Programs and Outreach, and importantly, one of the great people behind making the event happen. Hello, Claire. Thank you for joining us.

Dr Claire Sexton:

Hi. Delighted to be here.

Adam Smith:

Could you tell I was reading and not just, that wasn’t spontaneous memorized narration. Well, we’re back for the third, is this our third time of doing this each year? And every year you have something new to add to this, so I’m really excited. But for those guests that don’t already know you, why don’t we start by asking you to properly introduce yourself?

Dr Claire Sexton:

So, I work on the Med Sci team at the Alzheimer’s Association leading our team of volunteers and our staff working on our scientific programming for our conferences and also ISTAART and our peers.

Adam Smith:

Brilliant. Well, thank you. I mean, the AAIC almost needs no introduction. It’s the largest, most influential international meeting dedicated to the advancement of dementia science. And each year the AAIC convenes the world’s leading basic scientists, clinical researchers and early investigators, clinicians, and the care research community to share their groundbreaking discoveries. But these days it’s much more than that, isn’t it? It’s an event where people come together to network, to collaborate, to get careers advice and support. But enough of that introduction, let’s get into it and hear more about it from you.

Great. So, could we start with the basics, Claire, and tell us where and when is the event actually taking place this year?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yes, the conference is from July 16th through to the 20th in Amsterdam, but it is also online as well. So, wherever you are, if you’re not able to travel, you’re still able to access all of the plenary sessions and all of the scientific sessions, all of the posters as well,

Adam Smith:

16th to the 20th does that include… Because you have that whole pre-conference thing as well?

Dr Claire Sexton:

So, the pre-conferences start a couple of days before, so on Friday, then we have hands-on workshops. So, Ozzie Ismail on our team has been leading these and working with several of our professional interest areas through ISTAART. So, we’ve got ones on hands-on getting started with neuroimaging analysis. We have another one, cognitive assessments in low- and middle-income countries. We have others on using the AD knowledge portal ecosystem and using our so many different types of workshops.

And again, wanting to kind of vary it, not just these being more didactics, but then these being more hands-on, smaller groups learning. And it’s something that we are looking to expand next year. So then if you come, please let us know your experience of these and if you’ve got ideas, if you run sessions locally that you’d love to share with a global audience through AAIC, again, reach out to us and we’ll be in Philadelphia next year. So, we’re already thinking about what we’ll be doing there.

Adam Smith:

That’s important to note the early start because I remember that always confused me until you became familiar with the AAIC, is that you get those dates and I remember putting those dates in my diary saying, that’s when I’ve got to be there. And then as you started to look nearer the time you went, hold on a second. This is a whole extra program of brilliant activity that just starts a bit earlier. I’ve got to reorganize things to be there. So, if this is your first AAIC, don’t be tricked by those main dates there’s this massive really engaging program of pre-activity that is optional, I guess.

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah. So, then it’s Friday is the workshops, and you have to register for those. Several of those workshops are already sold out, but you can check on our registration site and see if there’s more space. And then on Saturday we have the two pre-conferences. We have the Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium. We also have technology and dementia, and we have peer day. So, there we have sessions throughout the day from all of the different peers being represented. And again, this is a nice way of if somebody’s attending AAIC for the first time to kind of ease into the program so it’s not going straight in into thousands of people. You can have smaller discussions with people with a similar focus and then get to know people through peer day and then be seeing those familiar faces throughout the week.

Adam Smith:

So, if you arrive in Amsterdam on the 14th, don’t worry, you won’t be alone. There’s going to be a whole bunch of other people. And so, you said some of those are going to be booked up now, but I’m guessing that means that some are still available and can still register to attend in person as well as… When do you think that will get full? Does online ever get full? Can you just register right up to the day if you go online?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, you can keep registering. You can turn up in Amsterdam and you can register online. So yeah, there’s still ample opportunity to register if you haven’t already done so.

Adam Smith:

Great. And just thinking about registration online, how does that work for ISTAART members? Is that something you pay for or is there a cost associated with that…?

Dr Claire Sexton:

No, it’s-

Adam Smith:

I can’t remember. It used to be free, right?

Dr Claire Sexton:

And it’s stayed free. So, it’s still free for ISTAART members and joining ISTAART is free for students and also for anybody based in a low- and middle-income country.

Adam Smith:

There really is no excuse not to attend. And I’m assuming that online is just the main conference, not those pre-conference things about which we were talking.

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, it’s not the pre-conferences, but as part of the main conference, it’s plenary sessions or the scientific sessions, it’s the posters. And in all the scientific sessions it’s not just watching, you can still be submitting your questions, getting your questions answered by the presenters. So, it can still be that you are interacting with the content.

Adam Smith:

So, I mean that’s perfect. I think even if you are kind of squeezing this in alongside work or you can still register for free as a ISTAART member and still at least then play catch up because you can go back and the sessions are all recorded, aren’t they?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, all recorded and available for 30 days. So, we see that it’s not just the people who are attending virtually, log into the virtual platform, it’s also people who are there and there’s often seven different parallel sessions. So, if there’s two things that you want to go to, then you can pick one and you can catch up on the other afterwards.

Adam Smith:

Most of our audience, most of our listeners are early career researchers themselves, but of course we do occasionally have somebody living with dementia or carers and people with lived experience listening as well. Is this a conference that’s got something for them in here? Can they attend online?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yes. And actually, people living with dementia are able to register for free. So, there’s information on that, whether it be the virtual or even the in-person.

Adam Smith:

Oh wow, really?

Dr Claire Sexton:

We do have then sessions, for example, we’ve got a session on the Monday on patient and public involvement in dementia research, global perspectives on that. So, then we either have other sessions which are exploring novel approaches to caregiver burden and stress. So, there are sessions that are more applicable and understandable for a general audience. And if anybody is listening in the Netherlands, then we are also having a summary session on the final day in partnership with Alzheimer’s Netherlands, which is then going to be the key take homes of the conference. It will be in Dutch. So that is again open to the public to attend that final session.

Adam Smith:

That’s brilliant. And so, if you register somebody, do you only have access to those understandable sessions, or does it just give you access to the full program like others?

Dr Claire Sexton:

It gives you access to the full program. And then also we have a PDF, which is recommended sessions. That’s for a general audience so then you don’t have to try and wade through everything, but they can look at these highlights and decide from them.

Adam Smith:

I’m always really conscious because there’s always that risk isn’t there, that you kind of point people towards the easy sessions and assume that they couldn’t absorb the more technical sessions, but then you’ll always get somebody along who says, “No, no, no, let me see it.” So, if you are listening and you’re somebody living with dementia or you’re a carer or family member or just passionate and interested in dementia, why not register to attend?

It sounds like there’s going to be lots of interesting sessions in here that are perfect and will help you come away with a bigger feel as to some of the work, the amazing work, that’s going on across the world. Thank you, Claire. So, I think we’ve sold them. You can still register, just to recap, free registration for online for students who are members of ISTAART, and you can join ISTAART for free as well if you’re in a lower middle-income country or you’re a student and you can attend online for free. You can still pay to attend in-person, still lots of places, or you can even just turn up in Amsterdam and buy your ticket on the day as well if you need to.

And of course, all the sessions are going to be recorded and you can watch them online. You can only attend pre-conference if you’re attending in person, but there are still places at many of those sessions. And I’ve seen that each individual peer these days has their own Twitter accounts, don’t they? And they’ve been Tweeting. So go follow @ISTAART I-S-T-A-A-R-T on Twitter and social media because they’re tweeting lots about the different sessions, which is a great way to keep up to date if you’ve not seeing what’s going on.

So that’s enough of that. So, we’ve talked about the pre-conference, I think. Yeah, I already asked you the second question before we’d ask the first that’s on my agenda. But moving on to the big event, can you give us a rundown of the scientific program? What’s covered and what do you think are going to be the main highlights this year?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, we have lots. So, we have over six hundred talks this year and there’s also over 3,500 posters in person and another thousand or so online. So, everything is covered really in some way, shape or form we hope. And there’s a few key areas where I think a lot of eyes will be on. One is the latest with anti-amyloid therapies. So then on Monday we do have trailblazer ALS2 session on the donanemab results, which will be the first time that that’s being heard. We also have deeper dives into graduate studies into the A4 and learn studies. And on Wednesday we have a plenary session, which is then four presentations on amyloid reduction and what evidence there is of downstream biomarker modification.

So that will be I think a very interesting plenary session and we’re taking a different approach to our plenary session that day just because of the interest in activity in that area. But it would be wrong to construe it as there being an amyloid focus because then we have other sessions on TAU therapeutics, on therapeutics targeting the immune system and then also non-pharmacological approaches. So, we’ll have the first results of the aging and cognitive health evaluation in elders randomized trial, the Achieve trial. So then that’s a study looking at hearing aids. So again, that will be in our developing topics. So, it’s a mix of all different approaches that we’ll be seeing there.

Adam Smith:

That’s good. And biomarkers, I mean that that’s an inevitability, right? At any conference at the moment, I imagine there’s a hot topic on biomarkers and when they’re going to be clinically meaningful, are we going to see them come through. Just for anybody who’s not attended before, do you organize it so that different days look at different things or is it just a mixed program throughout the week?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, so just firstly with regards to the biomarkers, again, this was the largest theme in terms of submissions, and we have our opening plenary is Rik Ossenkoppele talking about TauPET in clinical trials and practice. We also have during the week updated appropriate use criteria for amyloid and pet. We have a session on the NIAAA revised clinical criteria for Alzheimer’s.

We have sessions on implementation of plasma biomarkers within community settings. So, there’s a lot on that. And because we have so many people attending in person again now this is going to be our largest in person gathering for AAIC, we try and spread this out so that if people are coming for the week, we don’t want it to be that people have to be choosing between two sessions that they want to go to both of them too often. So, for this year then we try and have themes going through, there’s a kind of focus on TAU on the kind of Sunday and the Monday, and we think through how these findings can build upon one another and develop discussions through the week. So, there’s a lot of planning that goes into the placement of the sessions.

Adam Smith:

That makes complete sense, doesn’t it? Because if you put all your say biomarker things in on a Monday, that’s great, but then that would just be too much to absorb in one day. You would find yourself missing so much that you want if you had 20 parallel sessions going on biomarkers. So, spreading it throughout the week in that way is quite clever, although it does make for long days. What time is the first session each day?

Dr Claire Sexton:

So, the first scientific session is at 8:00 AM and then it finishes, the last scientific session’s at 5:30 PM but then we also have our-

Adam Smith:

We’re going to come to that. And you have special breakfast sessions as well.

Dr Claire Sexton:

We have breakfast networking sessions. So, we have the AWARE peer for women researchers [inaudible 00:16:12].

Adam Smith:

Well, this is my next question. So AAIC these days, I mean it’s not just a conference where people come and present science anymore, is it? It’s become so much more than that with this rich kind of program of training and networking and career stuff and mentoring as you say. So, talk to us through what’s going on in that kind of extracurricular space.

Dr Claire Sexton:

So, if you like getting up early for a nice breakfast, then 6:45-

Adam Smith:

6:45?

Dr Claire Sexton:

-6:45 till 7:30 we have networking breakfasts led by the AWARE peer and the diversity and disparities peer. And we also have one which is aimed for clinicians and that includes clinicians in training, but just more for people can be discussing the content that they’ve seen and how it applies then to their work. And we have key mentors and leaders at these sessions. So, it’s just a different type of networking and more informal conversations through those breakfasts.

And then at lunches, we also have lunch tables in the exhibit hall next to the posters. And we have meetups there, for example, for Brazilian researchers, for African networks, there’s funders there you can meet including the NIA. And also, at the same time at lunch then there’s the interactive sessions looking at publishing skills, inclusive peer review, communication skills, partnering with research participants. So, all of that happens at lunch times. And then in the evenings we have the opening reception. We also have the ISTAART reception on Wednesday night and at the ISTAART reception we’re going to have tables where you can be meeting with the peer executive committees as well. So again, there’s just lots of opportunities to meet people.

Adam Smith:

So, breakfast sessions, are they every day from Sunday?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Not every day. So, they’re Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And we do ask if you can RSVP. So, if you are an ISTAART member you should be getting our Sunday emails. If you’re not, please just drop us an email at istaart@als.org and we can make sure that you’re added to that. But they have links to RSVP for these events.

Adam Smith:

So, anybody who’s new to the event and has not yet necessarily become a member of ISTAART, definitely sign up to ISTAART now. It’s not too late if you go to the website. There’s a charge obviously if you are at a later career stage or in a wealthier part of the world, but if you are not, it’s free as we mentioned earlier, but it’s through that you can join these professional interest days, sorry, professional interest areas, which is the peers we’ve mentioned. And you don’t have to be working. So, one of those, for example, is called the eye as a biomarker. That doesn’t mean you have to be an optometrist or something to join that peer. As long as you’re interested in that field, you can join that. And then some aren’t disease specific, are they? Some of them are career stage specific, like the AWARE peer you mentioned. Remind us of what AWARE stands for

Dr Claire Sexton:

The Alliance of Women Alzheimer’s Researchers?

Adam Smith:

I put you on the spot there. You looked like…

Dr Claire Sexton:

I surprised myself.

Adam Smith:

If you didn’t see you have to go to YouTube to see the visual reaction to that one for the podcast. So, they’re the ones that organize these breakfasts and you don’t have to be a woman to join that one either.

Dr Claire Sexton:

No.

Adam Smith:

So, you don’t have to be anything to join any of these. You can just join them. But by being involved in those peers, this is where you’ll receive these emails. Which I know I’ve been receiving them this week to highlight all the different activities these professional interest areas are doing throughout the week, their focus research sessions, their lunchtime sessions, these extra training things that they’re doing, the breakfasts. And if you sign up to those emails, you won’t miss out. I’m guessing they’re also all listed in the program because you have a wonderful event app.

Dr Claire Sexton:

So, we have the meeting notebook if it’s somebody’s in person and as well as the app as well. So then that can keep you up to date and you can save a program and refer back to it.

Adam Smith:

Did I see as well, there was one session that caught my eye that’s been mentioned about dealing with the media. That one particularly looked interesting about how to handle media or communications.

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah. And that’s on Friday, Saturday as well. So then again, the link goes out to that just exclusively for our ISTAART members, but at the time of this recording, there were still a few spaces available in that one.

Adam Smith:

It might have gone by the time this comes out. This is going to come out in about three days after we’ve recorded it. But what an amazing full program again and you said six hundred in-person talks?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yes.

Adam Smith:

Wow. It just as ever continues to impress. There’s nothing else on that kind of scale. I wonder how does that sit with other disease areas? Are there bigger conferences in other or the same? Do we know?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Uh, I…

Adam Smith:

No. Why would you? Well, I think that’s the content covered, but before we finish, let’s move on and talk a little bit about how to get the most out of the event. We’ve already talked about the app a bit. Let’s move on and talk a little bit about how to get the most out of the event.

Okay, we’re back. So, Claire, what advice do you have for anybody who’s attending the AAIC for the first time? Because I know from experience, I mean it’s overwhelming, right? With six hundred in-person talks and three thousand posters, did you say? Thousands of posters and all the extra sessions as well, and imagine you’re a first, second year PhD student going to your first scientific conference, it can be pretty overwhelming. So, what advice do you have for anybody who’s attending for the first time?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, and I think exactly right, it can be overwhelming. So, I think the first thing is to think about what you want to get out of the conference. Is it that you want to increase your knowledge, in particular about your research field? So, the work that you’re doing for your PhD, do you want to concentrate on learning more about that and networking or is it that you want to come, and you want to be learning about a new field? So then if you’re working in public health that you want to be learning more about biomarkers or more about the basic science. And also, to be thinking about who do you want to be spending time with? Do you want to be taking this opportunity to socialize with people that you work with, enjoying their company in a different setting? Do you want to catch up with old friends or do you want to meet new people and spark new collaborations?

Do you want to make sure that you build in time to see Amsterdam, or do you have other deadlines that you’re going to have to be meeting during the same time? So, to be thinking of, okay, this is what I want to get out of the week, these are my priorities. And then to review it and see is that realistic? Am I going to be able to get all of these things done? Because you want to pace yourself and produce a plan of like, okay, I want to do X, Y, and Z this week and this is then how I can do it. So then to be looking at the conference program, looking at the app in advance, looking at what presentations you are most keen to go to.

We’ve tried to change some of the session naming to make it easier to navigate this year. So, you’ve got the plenary sessions, which are big picture. There’s only that session on at that time, so it’s bringing the whole AAIC audience together. Then we have perspective sessions and then these are also supposed to be big picture. So, if you are looking for an entryway into a different subject, then these would be more accessible.

And then we have the featured research sessions, and these are ones where you can dive a bit more into the details. So, for example, if you’re looking at biomarkers, then you might get the big picture with the plenary and the perspectives and then with the FRSs then you can be getting more into the details of what individual studies are finding. I think we’ve already spoken about the extra things. There’s also morning yoga and so to be building in those types of things and to be building in what you find helpful if you need to have a bit of time, there’s a Zen den if things are getting a bit too much. So, I think they’re the kind of things just to be thinking about and it is really thinking in advance of what you want to get out of the conference and then what you can be doing to meet those aims by the end of it.

Adam Smith:

And I think that’s where the app can be particularly useful at that. How far in advance can you actually put the app on your phone and register with your details?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, it’s a couple of weeks before the conference, then you can start seeing everything.

Adam Smith:

I love the way that it allows you to look at that by presenter or by topic and then you can click and build yourself a unique planner. It has that kind of diary function. I’m saying that this is what it’s been like in previous years. I’m assuming it’s not changed, that you can still build yourself a kind of bespoke planner for the week. Because that was really helpful, you lose track of time, you’re sat in one session and then it’s great though because it’ll beep and go, oh, there’s another one starting somewhere.

Particularly if you’re not staying for an entire session, you’re going to leave one after you get past speaker number three to run across the conference center to go to another session and catch speaker number five. I think that’s where it can be particularly useful. But also, as well as you said, these are all being recorded anyway, so even if you find yourself sat there in front of something interesting, you can stick around and catch it later on. You mentioned Zen den, do you also have the student lounge this year? Because there were some really cool things going on in there last year that I missed. You were doing photography and things like that. Is that in there?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, there’s usually head shots and refreshments in there and then the ask session will be on there on the Thursday as well.

Adam Smith:

What’s the ask session?

Dr Claire Sexton:

So, the ask sessions are throughout the week and these are in the exhibit hall and then in the student and postdoc lounge and it’s with plenary speakers and also award winners. So, then it’s an opportunity to ask them questions about the plenary session, which doesn’t have Q&A, but also about their careers and career advice and anything that you would like to ask, then you’re able to ask in that session.

Adam Smith:

And if you get lost, there’s a bunch of people in purple T-shirts, right?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yes, thank you for mentioning our ambassadors who are volunteering at the conference and they’re integral to the smooth running of the conference. They’re in every single session. They’re working with the chairs, with the presenters. If you’re lost or you have any questions, then you can see our ambassadors in purple shirts. So please do go and say hi to them and ask them any questions that you may have.

Adam Smith:

And they themselves are researchers. So, this isn’t a professional signpost, these are researchers themselves that will actually have an understanding. They’ve been primed and previewed and aware of everything that’s going on. So, they’re really helpful in guiding you when you can’t find the room or the sessions you’re looking for or knowing what’s going on at any one time. I know that from experience.

So top tips are plan ahead then, make sure you’ve looked at the program in advance, worked out the talks you’d like to see. I think social media can be quite useful there as well because if you’re a social media user, it’s a great place to meet the people that you’ve only ever engaged with online. And if you find out in advance who’s going, if you’re going on your own and there’s nobody else from your lab going, that can be a great way to immediately make a friend I think and not feel quite so nervous that you are kind of lost.

Or even if you’re looking for somebody just to go for a walk with and you’re a bit worried about being out and about on your own. So many of the early career researchers I’ve spoken to in the first, this might sound ridiculous, but so many of the ECLS I spoke to last year particularly this was their first time going abroad on their own as well, not necessarily just going to a conference on their own. And so, it can become kind of daunting to do that, I think.

So, lots of great opportunities to network as well. And networking is brilliant because of course I know from talking to some ECRs as well, they’ve made friends for life through this and also future collaborators. And if you are looking for a job right now or a funding call, I don’t think it can hurt to print off some business cards that you make up for yourself on Word, shove a copy of your CV in your bag. I think it’s always quite handy to have that potential around. And everybody always talks about, what do you think about if you are wanting to ask questions for the first time? Do you think they can do that? [inaudible 00:30:36].

Dr Claire Sexton:

This year as well, you can ask questions through the app. So, if you are nervous about going up to the mic, but you have a question, you can send it through the app, you can send it through the online program. But we also want AAIC to be inclusive, to be supportive. So, if you have a question and want to go up to the mic, please do. We have a prep session for our chairs, which is then reinforcing that we want it to be an environment where everybody is comfortable and that you can go, and you can ask your questions and you can get those questions answered. So, you can ask during the session in a variety of ways, you can hang around at the end and try and grab a speaker. And you can also see if somebody’s got time scheduled at their posters, which is another nice way where there’s kind of time for one-on-one interactions as well through the post sessions.

Adam Smith:

And I guess quite a lot of people who are going to listen to this might actually be presenting themselves. I wonder, I haven’t put this into my questions, I’m putting you on the spot here, but I wonder if you’ve got any tips for somebody who’s maybe presenting for the first time.

Dr Claire Sexton:

There’s several and we actually have webinars coming up on this topic. We have one for poster presenters and we have one for podium presenters. So, if you are presenting, you should have received the details about that. So, I think please do join those and the recordings will be available afterwards, so we’ll be able to give all the pointers there.

Adam Smith:

That’s brilliant. Anybody would think I’d kind of worked this out and I knew what to ask. I’m just giving you the perfect questions and you’ve done everything. This is the great thing. I’ve never been to one of these things and said, “What about that?” And you go, “Oh yeah, we hadn’t thought of that,” because you truly have thought of everything with this particular conference.

And I’ve just keep talking about presenting for a minute there as well, I think posters, I love posters. I think posters are a great first way to present because it gives you a chance to talk about, and even I think the most introverted of people who are there on their own shouldn’t be afraid to go and talk to some of the poster presenters because that’s a great way to get a conversation going and not have that pressure of being in a big room full of people and worried that you’re going to ask a question that’s a dumb question.

Because that’s what people are worried about, right? They’re worried about looking silly when they speak into the microphone. But don’t, just go for it. Go and ask those questions. We’ve also got podcasts on these topics as well. They’re a little bit old now, but we’ve got topics on how to give a great presentation, how to deliver a great poster, how to get over some of your anxiety around attending a conference for the first time. And we’ve got a bunch of blogs and content on the website to talk about how to prepare for that. Great. And do you know, is there anything else you’d like to add, Claire? Is there anything you’d like to tell us that I haven’t asked you?

Dr Claire Sexton:

No, I think we’ve covered a lot. I think we’ve gone over time again.

Adam Smith:

We have. Well, in that case, I’m going to read again, that’s all we have time for today. But before we go, I just want to highlight that we will be recording podcasts each day during the AAIC using our virtual recording studio. So, if you are attending, whether that’s in person or online, we’re always really interested to have you come and join us on the podcast, which we’ll record after each day session. So, we’ll record on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. We’ll record four podcasts that week at the end of each day. And we’d love for you too, if you’re attending, to join us and to share your highlights, talk about what you’ve seen and heard, what the good bits were, and we’ll be putting those out each day during the conference as well as a little bit of a roundup. And it doesn’t matter, even if you’re not attending in person, we’re going to be recording these online.

So, we’d love for you to join us. You can reach out at dementiaresearcher@ucl.ac.uk. Drop us a line, and we’d love to have you join. And commenting on the podcast is a great way as well to raise your own profile and to join our illustrious gallery of research contributors, which everybody tells us they like.

So oh, also as well, if you’re attending in person, the Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, UK Dementia Research Institute and Dementia’s Platform UK are hosting a networking event on the 18th of July. And I know they’d love to make sure that this is well attended. We’ll pop a link in the show notes should you be interested in registering, going, and learning more about some research opportunities to come and work in the UK and what some of those funders and things are doing right now. Because it’s an exciting time to work in research and of course I’ve got to wave the flag for the UK as a great place to work.

Claire, thank you so much again for taking the time for us to join us. Is there anything else coming up beyond the… I mean you are always two steps ahead. What’s coming up for you after the AAIC?

Dr Claire Sexton:

Yeah, in October, then we have an AAIC advancements conference towards health equity in ADRD that’s going to be in San Antonio with focus on social determinants of health. And then, yeah, we’re already planning TAU 2024 Neuroscience Next for 2024, other things. So, lots are still in the works. And yeah, thank you so much to Dementia Researcher for your continued support.

Adam Smith:

No, that’s as ever-

Dr Claire Sexton:

I appreciate it.

Adam Smith:

-it’s always a pleasure and our third year of doing this. And also, I should flag that we’ve been recording right now our fourth series of the Relay podcast, which is going to come out every day the week before AAIC. So, if I’ve got my calendar, which means from the 10th to the 14th of July, there’ll be an episode of our Relay podcast coming out every day. And this is where the interviewer goes on to be the interviewee of the next one. And we have five professional interest areas.

I think this year they’re coming from health disparities, neuroimaging, I shouldn’t have started this, the eye as a biomarker and a vascular one and another one. They’ll all be joining us that week to talk about their own peers, the things they’re doing at the AAIC, but also the hot topics in their research field. So do tune in. These will be starting in the week before the AAIC to the Relay podcast and they’ll all be available on YouTube and on here.

Thank you very much, Claire. I’m always in awe of the amazing work you and your team do to innovate and make the event bigger and better every time. I’m sure it’s going to be amazing. So, everybody, don’t forget it’s not too late to register. And even if you can’t get there in person, go to aaic.als.org to register. I’d like to thank my incredible guest, Dr. Claire Sexton.

Dr Claire Sexton:

Thank you.

Adam Smith:

I’m Adam Smith and you’ve been listening to the Dementia Researcher Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe and never miss an episode. And leave us a review.

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