Sven Kreutel studied biology at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. After his graduation in biology, he received his PhD in microbiology and protein biochemistry at the University of Hohenheim under Prof. Dr. Andreas Kuhn and Dr. Dorothee Kiefer working on the light sensing and signal transduction in photosynthetic bacteria. Since then, he worked in different sales and sales manager positions within the life science industry from clinical research over biology to nanoparticle sciences.

I am an Assistant Professor of Research, Director of the Human Biorepository Core, and Co-Director of the Exosome Core at the CUACC in the Department of Neurology. My research and teaching experience have been extensive, resulting in publications focused on topics that pertain directly to understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease in both the typical population and in people with Down syndrome. These topics include detailed examinations of the processes involved in protein mis-folding, the role of APP and its fragments in the development of Alzheimer’s, chemokines and their roles as neuronal migration cues, sialylation and its role in the posttranslational modification of neural cell adhesion molecule, as well as examining the role of these modifications in memory formation. My focus for the past many years has been investigating best practices for isolating exosomes as well as the role of exosomes in normal physiology and disease, especially viral infections, Alzheimer’s, cancer, fibrosis of lung tissue, and inflammation associated with adiposity. Also, I recently completed a Master’s in Clinical Science, which focused on translating benchside findings into clinical therapies. In my research, I have extensive experience isolating and examining the contents and functions of exosomes and in identifying Biomarkers for various pathologies ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s using plasma, exosomes, and the Quanterix single molecule array SIMOA® and MSD platforms. The results from recent analyses are being included in manuscripts in various stages of publication and preparation, including a sleep and cognition study, an examination of plasma biomarkers from people with Down syndrome, a mixed cohort study, and a clinical trial that examined the safety and efficacy of GM-CSF/sargramostim in participants with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Michael Graner received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois followed by post-doctoral and research faculty work at the University of Arizona, shifting gears from the Drosophila extracellular matrix to cancer immunotherapy. He then took at faculty position at Duke University’s Tisch Brain Tumor Center, followed by his current position as Professor in Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver (Anschutz Medical Campus). He is also a member of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, the MAVRC Program, and holds a Visiting Professorship Appointment at the Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital (China) and an adjunct faculty appointment at Colorado State University. Graner has a long-standing interest in cell stress responses, which led to cancer vaccine development (including one in clinical trials), which somehow led to the world of extracellular vesicles (EVs). His lab currently concentrates on signaling mechanisms involving EVs, in particular the transfer of stressed phenotypes from stressed tumor cells to unstressed ones via EVs.