Research Projects

Independent living of senior citizens is one of the main challenges linked to the ageing population, due to the impact on: (a) the life of the elderly people, (b) the national health systems, (c) the insurance companies, (d) the relatives and (e) the care-givers. Senior citizens may suffer from a number of diseases, including the decline in...

Multiple human diseases ranging from neurodegenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer´s disease) to cancer have been found to be linked with biomolecular mechanical properties change (phase transitions PTs). While these diseases have impacted many human beings (50 million for only AD), the causes of most of these diseases are still mysterious, and...

The goal of Project RELIEVE is to build the very first non-invasive effective closed-loop monitoring and intervention system for brain-related disorders. The outcomes can be used to treat or manage various psychiatric and neurological disorders. We do this by pushing the technological boundaries in two separate domains. (1) AI domain: We develop a...

Since Alzheimer disease (AD) affects up to 50% of individuals above 85, we will witness the three-fold increase in the number of patients by 2050 if no efficient therapy will be found. The FLORIN offers non-invasive real-time monitoring of key mechanisms involved in the AD pathogenesis by avant-garde bioimaging at temporal resolution less than 1...

Follow.Me aims to satisfy people’s desire of monitoring the position of elderly people with different forms of dementia and Alzheimer, in order to prevent danger situations. Caregivers and family members will be able to track their patients and loved ones using geofencing technologies in order to know when they leave or enter a given area, the...

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...

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...

Get Ready For Activity – persuasive ambiences is the modular application of ambient lighting, sound and scents research to create room ambiences for supporting people with dementia (PwD) and their caregivers in their daily activities and structure and positively influence erratic behaviour (depression and agitation) of PwD. The project aims to...

The goal of the 3D MiniBrain project is to establish and standardize the use of miniaturized human brain-like structures as a relevant three-dimensional (3D) testbed to decipher the roles of the main genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, according to original hypotheses obtained from our genetic studies. Minibrains...

The overall objective of Home4Dem is to address the challenge of dementia care that is a major burden for industrialised societies, through the large-scale deployment in the market of an innovative ICT platform to enable people with dementia to live at home independently and to maintain an active social life, thus improving their quality of life...

The RECAGE project will tackle one of the most challenging problem arising during the clinical course of dementia: the so-called Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD). The current state-of-the-art of the treatment of these symptoms is still unsatisfactory and there are many unmet needs in this area. The major objective of the...