San Diego County is home to some of the best and brightest Alzheimer’s researchers and institutions. Every year, Alzheimer’s San Diego is honored to host them as they come together at Date with a Cure 2025. This free research forum provides a rare opportunity to get your questions about dementia answered – by the very experts working to find a cure.
This year, Date with a Cure will be held on Tuesday, June 10th from 9 AM -11 AM via Zoom and is presented by SHARP. The esteemed panel will share about the most cutting-edge breakthroughs in dementia research – and the forum will be moderated by CBS 8’s Marcella Lee.
Dr. Paul Aisen
Director | USC Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute
Dr. Aisen is a professor of neurology and the founding director of USC Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI). He has been a leading figure in Alzheimer’s disease research for more than three decades, having developed novel methodologies as well as designed and directed many large therapeutic trials. He has authored more than 500 scientific papers.
Dr. James Brewer
Director | UCSD’s Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
Dr. Brewer chairs the UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences and directs the Shiley Marcos Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. He joined UC San Diego after completing MD and PhD degrees at Stanford and neurology residency training at Johns Hopkins. His research program focuses on applying advanced brain imaging approaches to detect the subtle and progressive changes that accompany aging and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Brewer has developed tools to support the detection of abnormal brain atrophy for patients being evaluated in the clinical setting and in clinical trials of new Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics and interventions.
Dr. Paulette Cazares
Medical Director, Senior Behavioral Unit and Geriatric IOP and Principal Investigator | SHARP
Over 24 years on Active Duty, Dr. Cazares held numerous leadership positions, both clinically and as a healthcare executive. She led general and specialty mental health programs, served nationally as the Chair of the Navy’s Women’s Health Clinical Community, and led creation of the Department of Defense’s 1st Comprehensive Women’s Health Clinic. She was Chair of the Southern California regional Provider Wellness Committee, and served as Associate Director for Mental Health in San Diego and as the Director for Mental Health in Okinawa, Japan. From 2016-2024, Dr. Cazares served as the Navy Liaison to the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA). Following her retirement from the Navy in 2024, she transitioned to Research and Medical Director roles at Sharp Mesa Vista in San Diego, CA where she currently oversees 10 active studies. Dr. Cazares attended medical school at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), completed a MPH at Drexel University, and Psychiatry Residency via the National Capital Consortium in Bethesda, Maryland. She is board certified in General Psychiatry, is a Clinical Associate Professor at USUHS, and is a proud wife and mother of four school-age children.
Dr. Jerold Chun
Senior VP, Neuroscience Drug Discovery | Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Jerold Chun, MD, PhD, is a Distinguished Scholar at Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego and Professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys (SBP) Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, CA. He received his MD and PhD (Neuroscience) through the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford University School of Medicine, completed postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute–MIT, and has held Professorships at UCSD School of Medicine, Scripps Research and SBP where he was also Senior Vice President for Neuroscience Drug Discovery. He has also served as Department Head of Molecular Neuroscience at Merck Research Laboratories and has interacted with the biotech and pharmaceutical industry over the last 25 years. His research has made important contributions to our understanding of the brain, including the discovery of genomic mosaicism and reverse transcriptase-mediated somatic gene recombination and its involvement in the most common forms of Alzheimer’s disease, with relevance to other brain diseases; and in separate work, he identified the first lysophospholipid receptor and other members of this lipid receptor family that underlie multiple medicines (e.g., fingolimod, siponimod, ozanimod, ponesimod and etrasimod). He has further contributed to an understanding of other diseases, including hydrocephalus, schizophrenia, neuropathic pain, infertility and fibrosis. Dr. Chun has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher since 2014.
Dr. Douglas Galasko
Neurologist & Professor of Neurosciences | UC San Diego
Dr. Galasko is helping to refine the use of biomarkers, including blood tests, to identify brain changes in Alzheimer’s disease to facilitate early and accurate diagnosis. He also works on clinical trials aiming to apply novel strategies and drug approaches to innovate in the treatment landscape for Alzheimer’s disease. These trials range from lifestyle and behavioral interventions to novel drug approaches for prevention and in people with young onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Hector M. González
Professor of Neurosciences | UCSD School of Medicine
Hector M. González is a Professor of Neurosciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. González is a population neuroscientist. He is the Principal Investigator of the Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging (SOL-INCA), which is the largest longitudinal study of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia among diverse Latinos.
Dr. Doris Molina-Henry
Assistant Professor, Research Neurology | USC Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute
Dr. Doris Molina-Henry is a trained neurobiologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. She is a faculty member at the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) and serves as Co-Associate Lead for the Recruitment, Engagement, and Retention Unit of the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC), funded by NIA- and NIH. Dr. Molina-Henry collaborates on the development of strategies to enhance recruitment and retention of ongoing Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials. Her work focuses on understanding disproportionate enrollment patterns, with particular attention to the influence of co-pathologies and sociodemographic characteristics. Her biomarker research aims to improve the applicability of fluid biomarker pre-screening strategies that include fluid biomarkers across a broader range of clinical trial populations. Building on this work, she is a multiple principal investigator for the Alzheimer’s Plasma Extension Study (APEX), a study examining longitudinal disease trajectories using plasma and cognitive measures among asymptomatic clinical trial volunteers who were ineligible for amyloid-lowering trials. Findings from APEX aim to guide early detection approaches and support the development of interventions to prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Sherry Soefje
COO and Medical Director | Excell Research
Dr. Soefje is Co-Founder and Medical Director of Excell Research in Oceanside, CA. She is a psychiatrist who has 30 years of clinical trial experience and has participated in over 450 clinical trials in the CNS area, being the Principal Investigator for a majority of those trials since 2012.
We’ll see you at Date with a Cure 2025 on June 10th – bring your questions! REGISTER >
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