Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) recently announced they will host a conference in partnership with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, which seeks to deepen the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.

The event, scheduled to take place at TAU on September 22, aims to expand collaboration and cooperation between US and Israeli scientists seeking a cure for the disease.

Recent studies have shown more than 500,000 new cases of Alzheimer’s disease are expected to be diagnosed this year in the United States. There is currently no known cure for the illness. 

The conference will be organized by TAU’s Illana Gozes, a molecular neuroendocrinologist; HUJI’s Hermona Soreq, a molecular neuroscientist; Rutgers neurology professor Michal Schnaider Beeri; and Rutgers neuroscience professor Mark Gluck.

“The fight to cure Alzheimer’s disease cuts across national and political divisions, providing us with common goals and targets on which we can all work together,” noted Gluck. 

Gluck and Beeri are raising funds to allow Rutgers graduates and undergraduates to travel to the conference, in order to present scientific achievements pertaining to their own research on Alzheimer’s disease, as well as aging and brain health.

The two also hope to leverage the event to bring more Israeli students to Rutgers and other U.S. universities, in order to advance their training in neuroscience and neurology.

Additionally, Gluck and Beeri plan to run “Brainright Israel,” a new international educational exchange program that would offer Rutgers students summer internships in Israeli brain research labs.

“The real engines of collaboration tend to be the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, not senior faculty,” added Gluck. “As such we will also be creating what is basically a job fair for Israeli students.”

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