ACMD Research Seminar - October 2026

PROGRAM

📅 Wednesday 12 October 2026

🕛 12:30–1:30pm

📍 Hybrid: The Brenda Shanahan AO Auditorium, or Online

Topic:

Stimulating Connections: Brain Stimulation for Cognitive Disorders

Description:

Cognitive impairment is highly prevalent and disabling, yet treatment options remain limited. As such there is a pressing need to investigate innovative therapeutic approaches. In order to drive meaningful innovation we must first identify appropriate and relevant therapeutic targets that are proximal to the symptoms we aim to treat.

In this talk, Professor Hoy will provide an overview of her research program, which focuses on developing brain stimulation therapies for cognitive disorders by targeting dysfunctional neural networks. Using an iterative, three-stage model, this work integrates cognitive neuroscience, mechanistic studies, and targeted clinical trials to develop and evaluate optimised, non-invasive brain stimulation protocols for the treatment of cognitive disorders. The presentation will highlight the program’s research in Alzheimer’s disease and recent commercialisation activities.

About the Speaker:

Professor Kate Hoy is a Clinical Neuropsychologist, Head of Cognitive Therapeutics at the Bionics Institute, and Chief Scientific Officer of CogTx Pty Ltd.

Over the last 18 years, Professor Hoy has built an internationally unique program of clinical research investigating non-invasive brain stimulation for the treatment of cognitive impairment. She has led several world-first brain stimulation clinical trials, including trials for the treatment and prevention of dementia. She has received over $27M in funding to date, has published 136 scientific journal articles, and is an inventor on 2 patents. Professor Hoy has served on the editorial board of Cortex and is a past president of the Australasian Brain Stimulation Society.

Hybrid attendance available

Open to all researchers across the #ACMD ecosystem. We look forward to welcoming our community to our next ACMD seminar

A light lunch is provided for in-person attendees from 12 PM onwards. We would love to see you there - register to secure your spot.

Session starts at 12:30pm

Join us in-person at ACMD

Register to attend in person from 12pm at the The Brenda Shanahan AO Auditorium, L1, The Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery (ACMD).

Join us online

Register to receive the teams link which will be shown on your ticket / email confirmation.

Important note for attendees:

Please be advised that photographs and videos may be taken by ACMD staff. By attending this event, you agree to being filmed or photographed, and acknowledge that these may be used for marketing or promotional purposes.

Contact

For any queries or help with event registration, please email contact@acmd.org.au