Research Projects

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...

IMI’s Call 8 is geared to develop knowledge frameworks for ‘druggable mechanisms’ for two domains of pathophysiology. In response to this call, we propose (I) the development of a generic AETIONOMY pipeline to capture and infer over mechanistic knowledge of pathophysiology, and  (II) the focused application of this pipeline to derive clinically...

The brain barriers function to protect the central nervous system (CNS) from neurotoxic compounds. By the same traits they unfortunately block delivery of drugs to the CNS thus hindering proper diagnosis and effective treatment of neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The unusual complexity of the brain...

The calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is a class C Gprotein-coupled receptor that plays a pivotal role in systemic calcium metabolism by regulating parathyroid hormone secretion and urinary Ca excretion. Abnormal CaSR function is implicated in calciotropic disorders, and in non-calciotropic disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cardiovascular...

The COVID pandemic can be seen as an experiment done with the entirety of humankind (as almost everybody has been or will get infected with SARS-CoV-2). It will therefore have the best coverage over the widest variation possible and is therefore ideally suited to study the effects of infections with SARS-CoV-2 on large quantities of heterogeneous...

The objective of the Coordination Action JUMPAHEAD is to support the implementation of the pilot Joint Programming Initiative on combating neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s disease (JPND). Neurodegenerative disorders are incurable and debilitating conditions that result in progressive degeneration or death of nerve cells. Of...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a global health burden. There are currently no treatments that prevent AD or modify the course of the disease. Recent work has identified several subtypes of Alzheimer’s disease that become apparent once clinical symptoms appear. These subtypes can guide improved treatment and care decisions. Here we aim to predict which...

Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia is a global public health priority. EURO-FINGERS builds upon the successful experiences of two multimodal prevention trials: the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) and the JPND-funded MIND-AD. The FINGER intervention trial showed that a...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating disorder without a cure. Recent research demonstrates a link between AD and exposure to high levels of air pollution, yet detailed understanding of the connection does not exist. Air pollution, a massive public health issue known to pose a major threat to humans, is an increasing global concern. Researchers...

There are many efforts at European level to improve our ability to monitor health and to prevent, detect, treat and manage disease so that active and healthy ageing can be promoted. In this project, breakthrough research and radical innovation on new services for integrated care is achieved by means of an efficient and cost-effective service...

The majority of the risk to develop Alzheimer's disease is influenced by genetic factors. We previously found that carrying a genetic mutation in the SORL1 gene can lead to a greatly increased chance of developing Alzheimer's Disease. SORL1 is involved in the production and processing of Alzheimer proteins that accumulate in the brain. e have...

Parkinson’s disease is dominated by motor symptoms such as tremor, bradykinesia and postural instability. However, over 90% of all patients develop cognitive impairment including deterioration of learning, memory and decision making. Current treatments focus on motor symptoms and offer at best moderate improvement of cognitive functions...