Research Projects

Circadian rhythm (CR) regulates body functions over the 24-hour day/night period; sleep/wake cycle is its most visible manifestation. CR disruptions have long been observed in patients with dementia and emerging evidence points to their presence in the preclinical period of dementia. This suggests that certain aspects of CR could be useful in...

"Tau is an intrinsically disordered protein that regulates microtubule activity in neurons. Aggregation of tau into amyloid fibrils is diagnostic of several diseases, termed tauopathies, that include Alzheimer's disease. Distinct amyloid aggregate structures, so-called ""strains"", are involved in different tauopathies. These assemblies can spread...

New perspectives are opening in neuroscience: the era of electricity is transitioning into the era of light. Super-resolution microscopy was elected “Method of the year 2008” and optogenetics “Method of the year 2010” by the Journal Nature Methods. HOLOSTED is a biophysics project using these modern optical methods to study the effects of Alzheimer...

Common mechanisms and pathways in Stroke and Alzheimer's disease. It has long been recognized that stroke and (Alzheimer’s Disease) AD often co-occur and have an overlapping pathogenesis. As such, these two diseases are not considered fellow travelers, but rather partners in crime. This multidisciplinary consortium includes epidemiologists...

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...

Virtually every decision people make comes with a sense of confidence – a subjective estimate of decision quality. The human capacity for confidence has tremendous social, clinical, and industrial impact. For example, children who can correctly judge their own level of confidence perform better academically. In the elderly, confidence declines...

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...

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...

EuroPOND will develop a data-driven statistical and computational modeling framework for neurological disease progression. This will enable major advances in differential and personalized diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring, and treatment and care decisions, positioning Europe as world leaders in one of the biggest societal challenges of 21st century...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) imposes an enormous personal burden on patients and caregivers, as well as a tremendous socio-economic impact on society. However, there is a paucity of pharmaceutical or interventional strategies that have a proven impact on the incidence or progression of AD. One reason is that most models are based on familial (early...

Health scientific discovery and innovation are expected to quickly move forward under the so called “fourth paradigm of science”, which relies on unifying the traditionally separated and heterogeneous high-performance computing and big data analytics environments. Under this paradigm, the DeepHealth project will provide HPC computing power at the...

The PERADES Programme (Defining Genetic, Polygenic and Environmental Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, using multiple powerful cohorts, focussed Epigenetics and Stem cell metabolomics) will find new susceptibility genes for early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. It will take all genetic findings and test for relationships with life- style...