T-CAIREM & PRiME Connaught Global Speaker Event: AI/ML-Driven Precision Aging (Sep. 22)
PRESENTATION: T-CAIREM & PRiME Connaught Global Speaker Event: AI/ML-Driven Precision Aging
DATE/TIME: September 22 (Mon.) from 1pm to 3pm ET
VENUE: 263 McCaul Street, University of Toronto (Google map)
DELIVERY: In-person & Online
GUEST SPEAKER: Shahar Arzy (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, HUJI)
PANELISTS: Michael Brudno (U of T, Vector Institute), Bradley Buchsbaum (Baycrest Hospital)
MODERATOR: Allison Sekuler (Neuroscientist, Baycrest Hospital)
PRiME and T-CAIREM at the University of Toronto are delighted to welcome Shahar Arzy (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, HUJI) for his keystone seminar on the future of Alzheimer's disease.
After the keynote seminar, Shahar Arzy will be joined by Michael Brudno (U of T, Vector Institute) and Bradley Buchsbaum (Baycrest Hospital) for a panel discussion moderated by Allison Sekuler (Baycrest) on the "Role of Al/ML in precision aging and cognitive health."
About the Presenters
Shahar Arzy (Keynote)
Shahar Arzy is the Director of the Computational Neuropsychiatry Lab (CNP Lab) at the Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), and the lead neurologist of the Neuropsychiatry Clinic at Hadassah Medical Center, affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his medical degree and master’s in cognitive science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and PhD from the Swiss Institute of Technology and the University of Geneva under Prof. Olaf Blanke.
Shahar’s main interest is the human self and its relations to the surrounding world – the space in which we live, the river of time that carries our memories and future plans and imagination, and people around us, as well as more conceptual frameworks. To this aim, he applies tools from cognitive neuroscience, functional neuroimaging, Virtual Reality and computational neuroscience. As an active clinician, he is interested in the way in which these relations are disturbed in neuropsychiatry, and especially in Alzheimer’s disease.
Michael Brudno (Panelist)
Michael Brudno is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and the Chief Data Scientist at the University Health Network (UHN). He is also a faculty member at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Scientific Director of HPC4Health, a private computing cloud for Ontario hospitals. Michael’s primary area of interest for his research is the development of computational methods for the analysis of clinical and genomic datasets, especially the capture of precise clinical data from clinicians using effective user interfaces and its utilization in the automated analysis of genomes. His work focuses on capturing structured phenotypic data from clinical encounters, utilizing both refined user interfaces and the mining of unstructured data (based on machine learning methodology), as well as the analysis of omics data (genome, transcriptome, epigenome) within the context of structured patient phenotypes.
Bradley Buchsbaum (Panelist)
Bradley Buchsbaum studies how we consciously remember the past—why some memories are vivid and others vague—and how these experiences are reflected in brain activity. His lab uses functional MRI and machine learning to decode the content and quality of memory from neural patterns, with a focus on how memory changes with aging. His lab is also developing AI-based diagnostic tools for detecting mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease from figure drawing tasks such as the clock drawing test. These methods offer promising, accessible avenues for early screening and precision assessment of cognitive decline.
Allison Sekuler (Moderator)
Allison Sekuler (FSEP, FPS, FAPS) is the Sandra A. Rotman Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Vice-President Research at Baycrest Health Sciences. Dr. Sekuler holds faculty positions in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University and the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her research uses behavioural and neuroimaging approaches to understand how the brain processes visual information, with specific interests in face perception, motion processing, perceptual learning, neural plasticity, aging, and neurotechnology. Her research was the first to show conclusively that older brains “rewire” themselves to compensate for functional changes. Her clinical and translational research aims to develop methods to prevent, detect, and treat age-related sensory and cognitive decline. She has scientific and industry collaborations across North America, the EU, and Asia, and her work has been published in leading international journals, including Nature, Current Biology, and the Journal of Neuroscience.
