On 3 February, the "From air pollution to brain pollution – novel biomarkers to unravel the link of air pollution and Alzheimer’s disease" (ADAIR) consortium held its second General Assembly (GA), virtually. ADAIR applies a precision medicine approach to stratify individuals to subgroups for risk estimation and future AD prevention, ultimately aiming to target air pollution induced effects in those individuals that can most benefit from them. The project investigates the novel, ambitious hypothesis that the pollutant exposure environment of an individual alters cellular mechanisms and functions, resulting in the expression of measurable biomarkers associated with AD.
The Project Coordinator, Associate Professor Katja Kanninen, opened the GA, which was attended by 21 delegates representing 7 institutions and organisations in the consortium. During the GA, the Coordinator and work package leaders reported scientific progress, to date, as well as planned work for the coming months. At present, the team led by Professor Jan Topinka, from the Institute of Experimental Medicine at the Czech Academy of Sciences, has commenced multi-omic analysis for biomarkers of air pollutant exposure effect and AD risk factors. Due to COVID-19, planned research mobility between partnering institutions in 2021 is currently on hold.
Jean Georges, Executive Director of Alzheimer Europe attended the ADAIR GA. Alzheimer Europe is an external collaborator in the ADAIR project and is involved in managing and promoting successful exploitation of research results from the ADAIR project. This includes generating a strong interest within the relevant stakeholder communities such as policymakers, health and safety sector, and patient advocacy groups. Most recently, the consortium was introduced to the public at the 30th Virtual Alzheimer Europe Conference. The consortium is also planning to hold a parallel session at the 31st Alzheimer Europe Conference in November 2021, where partners will present research results. The next ADAIR General Assembly will be held on 8 June 2021, and is tentatively proposed as a hybrid event.
The ADAIR project is funded under the 2019 JPCO-Fund call for Personalised Medicine under the grant number, JPND2019-466-037. Further information on the project and consortium can be found here: https://adair-jpnd.eu/
