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...

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...

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...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common age-related neurodegerative disorder, and one of the most devastating diagnoses that patients and their families can receive. Currently ~10 % of over 65 year old have AD, and the direct and indirect cost of its care is estimated to be >100 billion $ in the US alone and in the UK ~ €22M, and therefore...

Neurodegenerative disorders, represented mostly by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), are characterised by progressive neuronal impairment and death. In spite of the brain's known capacity for regeneration, lost neurons generally cannot be replaced. Therefore, drugs aimed at inhibiting neurodegenerative processes are likely to...

CHANCES aims at combining and integrating on-going cohort studies in order to produce evidence on ageing-related health characteristics and determinants in Europe, and their socio-economic implications. 15 cohorts participate, covering populations from 18 EU Member States, 4 associate countries, and 3 additional countries. The combination of these...

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...

In response to the need to tackle increasingly complex medical research questions, a growing amount of human health data is being collected, either in routine Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) databases, through research-driven cohort studies, in biobanks or related efforts. However, data sources are typically fragmented and contain information...

Pharmaceutical industry, as well as basic science, depend on robust data and scientific rigor as key drivers for decision making, patent strength and time-to-market, which in turn will determine knowledge gain and availability of new treatments to patients. Recent publications report challenges with the robustness, rigor, and/or validity of...

Dementia causes long and oppressive suffering to patients and their relatives and imposes enormous costs on society. About 25 million people suffered from dementia in 2000. As a 4-fold increase of this number is expected by 2050, dementia is one main health issue of the next decades. Alzheimer's disease (AD) covers 60-70% of all dementia cases. No...

The EU population is increasingly exposed to new physical and chemical agents in the environment, some of which may be detrimental to public health. Of these, electromagnetic fields (EMF) are one of the most ubiquitous, with new EMF technologies and novel applications being actively developed and commercialised. To address pertinent questions on...

The mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have remained poorly understood while com- mon animal models have not helped in finding efficient therapies for the disease. This pro- ject aims to generate new human cellular models allowing for the purification of specific neural cell types involved in AD. We generate patient neural cells through...