Dr. Goldman holds a B.A. degree from University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from The Rockefeller University and an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. He is presently Dean Zutes Chair and Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Pediatrics Chief, Division of Cell and Gene Therapy Department of Neurology University of Rochester Medical Center.  He was elected in 2001 to the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Kornblum is currently an Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is a Pediatric Neurologist, a member of the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, The Brain Research Institute and a Principal Investigator of the UCLA/Department of Energy Laboratory of Structural Biology and Nuclear Medicine. His degrees include a B.A. in Biology from Washington University and a Ph.D., and M.D. from UC Irvine. His research interests include the biology and use of CNS stem cells, brain development, brain repair and epilepsy.

Research in Dr. Macklis' laboratory is directed toward the cellular repair of complex cerebral cortex and cortical output circuitry (including cortico-spinal motor neuron circuitry). The lab focuses on neural precursor / “stem cell” biology, neocortical projection neuron differentiation, functional neuronal circuit repair via transplantation, and induction of neurogenesis by molecular manipulation of endogenous neural precursors / stem cells within murine neocortex. Since 2002, he has been Director of the newly established Masschusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School (MGH-HMS) Center for Nervous System Repair (CNSR). He is also Program Head, Neuroscience, Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Co-Director for the Regeneration and Repair Program of the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair. He attended M.I.T., HMS, and graduate school at M.I.T. within the Harvard-M.I.T. Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).  He was a postdoctoral fellow in developmental neuroscience with Richard Sidman at HMS. He trained clinically in Internal Medicine at BWH and adult neurology in the Harvard-Longwood Neurological Training Program.  Until moving to MGH in 2003 to establish the new MGH-HMS CNSR, he was in the Division of Neuroscience at Children’s Hospital, and was Co-Director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. McKay holds a B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh where his doctoral work examined DNA organization and chromosome structure. He has conducted research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and in 1984 joined the faculty at MIT where he continued to examine neuronal organization. He accepted his current position in 1993 as chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). His laboratory is focused on understanding stem cell differentiation.

Dr. Noble is currently a Professor of Genetics in the Center for Cancer Biology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. His research is focused on stem cell biology, regeneration in the central nervous system, redox modulation of precursor cell function, developmental disorders, brain tumor biology and adverse effects of chemotherapy on neural stem cell populations. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1977.

Dr. Palmer is Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University.  He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of Washington and has since won several prestigious honors and awards, including the Michael J. Fox Fellowship in Stem Cell Research.  Dr. Palmer’s laboratory examines regions of the adult brain where neurons regenerate, seeking to understand how the brain regulates and utilizes this natural repair capability.

James A. Thomson is a University of Wisconsin-Madison developmental biologist in the Department of Anatomy in the School of Medicine who also serves as the chief pathologist at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center on the UW-Madison campus. He received his doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1985 and his doctorate in molecular biology in 1988, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Since joining the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, he has conducted pioneering work in the isolation and culture of non-human primate and human embryonic stem cells, undifferentiated cells that have the ability to become any of the cells that make up the tissues of the body. Dr. Thomson directed the group that reported the first isolation of embryonic stem cell lines from a non-human primate in 1995, work that led his group to the first successful isolation of human embryonic stem cell lines in 1998. The major focus of his lab is on understanding how primate embryonic stem (ES) cells choose between self-renewal, death, and differentiation to specific lineages.

Dr. Vescovi currently serves as Co-Director of Research for the Institute for Stem Cell Research in Milan, Italy.  He received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Milan in 1987. Dr. Vescovi spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Pathology of the University of Calgary, Canada working at the isolation of neural stem cells.  From 1993 through 1999 he was the supervisor of two strategic projects on "Neural Stem Cell Transplantation For Neurodegenerative Disorders" funded the Italian Ministry of Health while also acting as vice-director of research at Neurospheres Ltd, Calgary, Canada from 1995 through 1998.  From 1995 through 2001 he has been an adjunct professor at the Course of Physiology at the University of Milan.