Research Projects

The societal burden of brain disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease is enormous and is considered one of the world’s most important health challenges. They affect millions of people worldwide and the annual healthcare costs are high and are increasing with the aging population. There is an immediate need to...

Microvascular impairment is a hallmark of many of todays most burdening diseases, including forms of ischemic heart disease, stroke, and dementia. It is also the most promising candidate to explain the link between cardiovascular and brain disease (so-called heart-brain axis). However, only histology provides comprehensive assessment of the...

Dementia is currently diagnosed largely based on cognitive decline, while pathology starts years before symptom onset. To make progress in the development of effective drugs for dementia, there is an urgent need for biomarkers to enable precision health: for early and specific diagnosis and objective monitoring of disease progression. With its...

Cognitive abilities change with development and age. Cognitive development during childhood and adolescence depends on an intellectually challenging environment, but is robustly affected in various forms of mental retardation. Adult cognitive abilities are strongly correlated with a person’s success in life. Finally, cognitive decline is an...

The anticipated pandemic increase in the number of Alzheimer disease (AD) and dementia cases carries serious implications for society. The goal of the MIND-AD project is to identify effective prevention strategies for AD/dementia tailored to different at-risk groups. The project is based on experiences and data from five ongoing European...

Many older adults living in residential care homes suffer from dementia and depression. MIDDEL aims to determine if music interventions can help. Specifically, this trial will provide robust and generalisable results concerning the comparative effects of group music therapy (GMT), recreational choir singing (RCS), their combination, or standard...

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a central redox cofactor and the limiting substrate of key metabolic enzymes. The constellation of cellular functions in which NAD+ is involved makes its availability critical for cell survival, and its depletion is a leading factor in a number of diseases in humans, ranging from rare inherited defects to...

The search for effective therapies and early detection strategies for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the major cause of dementia in Europe, is imperative. It is known that β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide plays a central role in neurodegeneration. In AD brain, Aβ is released in a soluble form that progressively becomes insoluble forming aggregates; extracellular...

Age related memory decline, mild cognitive impairments (MCI), and cognitive impairments that occur with diseases, such as stroke, brain injuries, or early stages of dementia, have negative effects on the ability to navigate and to orient. Affected people who repeatedly start experiencing disorientation events often become scared of venturing out...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a highly prevalent neurodegenerative disease associated with gradual loss of cognitive functions and brain vitality. The leading “amyloid cascade” hypothesis for the pathogenesis of AD states that amyloid-β (Aβ) starts to accumulate ~15 years before symptom onset and starts a cascade of pathological events, including...

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a major obstacle in treating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Schizophrenia and brain cancer, affecting 180 million Europeans with less than 5% of current candidate drugs effectively reaching the brain. NAP4DIVE strives to revolutionize the traditionally expensive and...

Brain disorders impose an increasing economical and social burden in the member states of the European Union (EU). For most neurodegenerative diseases and many neuropsychiatric disorders no efficient treatment is available and no cure exists. In the next coming years the number of particularly elderly people suffering from brain disorders will...