Research Projects

The overall aim is to further the understanding of the BBB in health and disease states towards the development of innovative brain delivery systems, especially for biopharmaceuticals (e.g., peptides, antibodies, etc.) and the identification of novel disease drug targets (Alzheimer’s Disease, MS, metabolic disease).

The related key deliverables...

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...

The MEMOLOAD project will focus on the molecular and biological mechanisms underlying memory loss that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease, the leading cause of dementia and an enormous medical, social and economic challenge to Europe. Several lines of evidence point to accumulation of beta-amyloid peptide (Aß) in the brain as the key pathologic event in...

Europe faces an enormous human toll of brain disorders, with an estimated 83 million people affected, and economic costs amounting to approximately €800 billion. Drug treatments for brain disorders prove often less than effective with a lack of selective cell targeting. A failure to develop new drugs has led major Pharmaceutical companies to...

At present more than 5 million people in the EU suffer from dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases and that number will grow as the average age of the population continues to increase. The efficacy of current medicines is limited and new therapeutic targets are sorely needed. Several independent lines of evidence have established an...

Future treatment of incurable neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA), and Huntington’s disease (HD), has to be tailored to individual patients or cohorts of patients to obtain an optimal effect. The STEMMAD project is aimed to create a highly innovative...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders leading to dementia are associated with staggering costs and suffering. Recently, there has been some progress in the search for effective therapeutic interventions and it is clear that any treatment is likely to be most effective if administered at the earliest stage of disease, but the health care...

PRIME introduces the novel concept of insulin signalling as a key mechanism underlying the multimorbidity of major mental and somatic illnesses. It is well known that aberrant insulin signalling causes high health and socioeconomic burden through its role in diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. We posit that the impact of ‘insulinopathies’ is...

“SAVE” is dedicated to the elderly persons, suffering (or at risk of) age-related chronic illnesses and/or mild cognitive issues/disabilities. For these, and a range of “not-so-fit” persons, “SAVE” aims to avoid psychosocial exclusion by “restoring the referential”. The unique goal of “orientation” in a supportive environment – in terms of position...

Recent Nobel Prize-winning discoveries on circadian clock (CC) have laid the foundation for ground-breaking approaches to treat many diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is a current public health priority. Amplifying the demographic burden of the rising numbers of patients is the low success rate of AD therapies. Given that CC genes...

Major objective: It is our aim to develop a lipid based diet that is able to delay or prevent onset of Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases and has a stabilizing effect on cognitive performance in aging. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that there is a large overlap between risk factor of these three diseases. Importantly, there is equally...

Due to ageing of the populations, increasing number of elderly people experience progressive cognitive decline and suffer from dementia including Alzheimer’s disease. Symptoms affecting people with dementia create an enormous challenge to healthcare and social support systems, as well as individual caregivers. Needs of people with cognitive decline...