Hampus Hillerstrom

Hampus Hillerstrom bridges biotechnology, disability advocacy, and personal experience in his career. As President and CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society, he leads initiatives in research, health, and community engagement, with a focus on Alzheimer’s prevention for the Down syndrome community—a cause made personal by his son’s diagnosis. 

Drawing on his biotech background and lived experience as a person with a disability, Hampus emphasizes the importance of inclusive research, medical innovation, and workforce development. His work illustrates how people with disabilities can be leaders and changemakers in science and medicine. 

Hampus Hillerstrom’s career sits at the intersection of biotechnology, disability advocacy, and personal purpose. As President and CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), he leads efforts to advance research and policy for individuals with Down syndrome and their families. But his path to this role began in the biotech industry, where he worked on developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

His focus on Alzheimer’s disease became personal when his son, Oskar, was born with Down Syndrome. Through both his professional background and personal experience, Hampus knew that up to 90% of individuals with Down syndrome will develop Alzheimer’s disease over their lifetime. Because people with Down syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21—they are at significantly higher risk for early-onset Alzheimer’s. This reality focused Hampus’s mission, to accelerate Alzheimer’s research and prevention specifically for the Down syndrome community. In his current role as President of NDSS, he leads the research, health, education, and community engagement initiatives.

His work highlights an urgent workforce need. The field requires scientists, bioengineers, clinical researchers, data analysts to ensure that individuals with disabilities, like Down Syndrome, are included in Alzheimer’s prevention, research and treatment.. Biotechnology is not just about R&D in the lab —it is about equity, access, and improving quality of life for populations historically excluded from research studies.

Hampus also brings lived experience as a person with a disability. He wears a prosthesis on his left arm and uses a mechanical device that enables his prosthetic hand to perform everyday tasks. Advances in medical technology and prosthetic engineering have helped make this possible—demonstrating how medical innovation can expand independence and opportunity.

His career shows two powerful truths:

• Biotechnology careers can directly improve the lives of people with disabilities.

• People with disabilities are leaders, innovators, and changemakers shaping the future of science and medicine.

From Alzheimer’s drug development to national disability advocacy, Hampus Hillerstrom embodies how personal experience, scientific expertise, and a focus on inclusion can come together to create change.