Research Projects

Understanding the genetics of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the best ways of improving our knowledge of the disease's underlying pathophysiological processes. Indeed, genetic factors account for up to 70% of the attributable risk in common forms of AD. The advent of genomic approaches has led to the characterization of 26 genetic determinants...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an ever-increasing public health concern among the aging population and is the most common form of dementia affecting more than 15 million individuals worldwide and around 5 million Europeans. The direct and indirect costs of AD and other dementias amount to more than €440,000 million each year (www.alz.org, 2010).Even...

NEUREKA will bring a paradigm shift in drug discovery for neurological diseases, a sector that suffers multiple, repeated failures exacerbating the economical and societal burden of these incurable diseases. It will do so by addressing a crucial shortcoming: the lack of in vitro systems faithfully reproducing brain pathology that enable the...

The aim of the project is to utilise state-of-the-art in ICT in order to develop an integrated solution for the  self-management of dementia patients, and develop innovative tools to support this procedure. This  solution can be conceived as an integrated platform enabling distant monitoring of patient status and  facilitating personalised...

The DEM-CHILD project focusses on the main cause for childhood dementia in Europe, the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs). The NCLs are neurodegenerative diseases characterized by dementia, blindness, epilepsy and physical decline leading to an early death of the patients. Since no cure is currently available, these disorders represent a serious...

In the absence of a cure for dementia, most research is aimed at an early diagnosis as it opens the way to timely future care and treatment, and can help people take control of their lives and plan ahead. However, people with moderate to severe dementia and their carers are often not receiving services of the type, quality and timing that they need...

By means of three different technologies, visual stimulation of mirror neurons in Alzheimer patients, an interactive agenda or diary and a movement monitoring system, people with dementia will be able to improve or sustain their cognitive functions. By developing, integrating and testing these technologies in home-care and residential settings we...

MEETINGDEM aims to implement and evaluate the innovative Meeting Centres Support Programme (MCSP) for community dwelling people with dementia and their family carers, in three European countries: Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. This person-centred approach has been positively evaluated and adaptively implemented in 118 meeting centres in the...

With an increasingly growing population in Europe, cognitive impairments as well as heart diseases are a major social and health issue. 1.2 million people in Europe are affected by Parkinson's disease (PD) while Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the biggest global public health challenges our generation is facing, while Cardiovascular disease...

The JA will be contribute to public health programmes in Europe and develop Alzheimers disease (AD) and dementia prevention and care models in different European countries. The aim is to contribute to improvements in health by supporting and facilitating quality and efficiency of public health and healthcare policies and interventions. Synergy and...

Everybody grows old. But while some people grow old in good health, others experience severe disease, such as Alzheimer's disease. Recent research demonstrates that Alzheimer's disease shares several features with the ageing process and suggests that the pathology is the consequence of something that goes wrong during physiological ageing...

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia among the elderly, whose care in Europe demands an amount of financial resources which is rising dramatically making AD a financial problem. Delaying AD onset by 5 years would decrease its prevalence by 50% with an enormous impact on the financial resources involved in AD care. Hence, it is...