EuGMS: SIG on Brain Health and Dementia

Dear Colleagues,

The EuGMS SIG on Brain Health and Dementia is glad to invite you to its next OPEN online meeting. The meeting will take place on 28th May 2026, 3 to 4pm CEST (2 to 3pm UK time, 4 to 5pm Helsinki Time)
SIG on Brain Health & Dementia - OPEN Online Meeting | Join Meeting | Microsoft Teams

The agenda of the upcoming meeting is as follows:
- Welcome & Introduction
- Update on ongoing projects
- Research presentation (15min + 10min discussion)

Dementia risk reduction with Herpes Zoster vaccination?
Dr. Johanna Pöyhönen, University of Helsinki (Finland)

MD Johanna Pöyhönen graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Helsinki in 2003. She has practised medicine in several specialties, including general practice, anaesthesiology, and radiology. Since 2023, she has been pursuing doctoral studies at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and in the doctoral programme of the University of Helsinki. Her doctoral research focuses on the interplay between frailty and cognitive impairment, as well as on opportunities to prevent frailty and cognitive frailty. Her thesis defence is scheduled for August 2026.
Johanna Pöyhönen currently works as a medical adviser and study physician at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in the MET-FINGER trial, conducted in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Imperial College London, UK. The trial investigates the effects of a multidomain intervention combining lifestyle modification and metformin on cognition. She is also involved in two upcoming caregiver trials in collaboration with Tampere University and the University of Eastern Finland. In addition, she participates in a register-based study investigating the prevalence and incidence of early-onset dementia in Finland.
Her future postdoctoral research plans include investigating the biology of frailty and cognitive frailty using inflammatory biomarkers and polygenic risk scores. The topic of this presentation is based on a collaboration with Finnish Vaccine Research and includes unpublished findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis on herpes zoster vaccination and dementia risk.

- Planning future projects

- Discussion & Conclusions

We look forward to meeting many of you online!

Join us!
Be on time, mute your microphone when you're not talking and enjoy this moment with your colleagues!
Please note that the meeting will be recorded and that the audio and video recordings might be used by the EuGMS for dissemination on the EuGMS website and social media.

Kind regards,
Co-chairs: Dr Tomas Welsh and Dr Hanna-Maria Roitto
Secretary: Prof Sean Kennelly

CONNECTION DETAILS:

SIG on Brain Health & Dementia - OPEN Online Meeting | Join Meeting | Microsoft Teams
https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fmeet%2F34316240652728%3Fp%3D6WrzEBgXzY5e8yaHbw%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meet&deeplinkId=0fc99de5-f83c-4b36-9347-cdbcdebf090e&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true