THE CARDINAL FAMILY SCHOLARS FUND

Providing extraordinary support to early- and mid-career scientists emerging as the next generation of Alzheimer’s disease leaders, Cardinal Family Scholars receive robust two-year support for research, personnel, supplies, scientific communication, and professional development opportunities unique to the program. Scholars are enabled to expand the reach of their research programs, strengthen mentorship within their teams, and build the leadership capacity needed to advance transformative progress in the field. Each cohort will include at least five Scholars, with a goal of supporting a minimum of twenty Scholars between 2026–2030. The Cardinal Family Scholars program is made possible through the Cardinal Family Fund.

Program year: 2026 | 2025

MEET THE 2026 CARDINAL FAMILY SCHOLARS

Joel Blanchard, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Defining and Targeting Mechanisms of APOE4 Cerebrovascular Dysfunction and Amyloid Accumulation in Alzheimer’s Disease
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Joseph Castellano, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Rejuvenating Amyloid-Induced Dysfunction in the Oligodendrocyte–Microglial Niche via Youth-Associated Blood-Borne Factors
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Sandro Da Mesquita, PhD
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Jacksonville
Target Senescence Mechanisms to Restore Brain Lymphatic Drainage in Preclinical Models of Alzheimer’s Disease
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Fanny Elahi, MD, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Breaking Silos: A Bidirectional Human Framework Linking Vascular Dysfunction and Tauopathy Across Dementias
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Ana Griciuc, PhD
Harvard Medical School | Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute
Unlocking TREM2 Biology to Enable New Therapeutic Strategies for Alzheimer’s Disease
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Adrian Oblak, PhD
Indiana University School of Medicine
Enhancing Anti-Amyloid Therapeutic Efficacy Through SHIP1-Mediated Modulation of Microglial Function in Alzheimer’s Disease
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Jeffrey Savas, PhD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Defining the Presynaptic Molecular Switch Linking Amyloid Pathology to Tau Pathogenesis
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MEET THE INAUGURAL COHORT OF 2025 CARDINAL FAMILY SCHOLARS

Rachel Bennett, PhD
Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute
Alzheimer’s Disease Tau Consortium: Toxic Consequences of Early Tau Seeding
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Lulu Jiang, MD, PhD
University of Virginia
The Role of Planar Cell Polarity Proteins in Tau Oligomer-Induced Synapse Degeneration
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Doo Yeon Kim, PhD
Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute
Exploring Novel Drug Candidates for Alzheimer’s Disease Through Integrative Pathway Analysis and Validation in 3D Cellular Models
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Jorge Palop, PhD
Gladstone Institutes | University of California, San Francisco
Developing Cell-Type-Specific Enhancer-AAV Vectors to Characterize and Restore Amyloid Beta- and Tau-Dependent Circuit and Cognitive Deficits in Humanized Alzheimer’s Mouse Models
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Hagen Tilgner, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine
A Three-Dimensional Tissue Model Linking Tau Tangles, Amyloid Beta and Microglial CD33-Isoform State to Gene- and Isoform-Expression Dysregulation
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Andrew Yang, PhD
Gladstone Institutes | University of California, San Francisco
Decoding Protein Transport Across the Blood-Brain Barrier to Enable New Alzheimer’s Therapies
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