Research Projects

Assemblies of tau and α-synuclein were shown to spread along interconnected neuronal networks suggesting broadly relevant therapeutic directions for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. This requires a pre-clinical stage of development that has yet to be met. The scale of neurodegenerative disease burden in Europe calls for an unprecedented...

Neuroinflammatory disease, in particular multiple sclerosis affects more than 700.000 people within Europe alone. European countries are at the forefront of neuroimmunological research and students in medicine and biology are greatly attracted by the field. Neuroimmunology research further impacts our understanding of the ethiopathology of other...

The mammalian central nervous system is an intricate and fragile structure which on one hand is open to change in order to store information, but at the same time is vulnerable to damage from injury, pathogen invasion or neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). Microglia, representing the brain`s innate immune system, execute a number of physiological...

Biological cells consist of a myriad of interacting biomolecules that collectively arrange in stable structures. For example, molecules undergo phase separation to form so-called biomolecular condensates. We now know that malfunctioning condensates can cause diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and cancer. Yet, we do not understand how...

The vision of IASIS is to turn the wave of data heading our way into actionable knowledge for decision makers. This will be achieved by integrating data from disparate sources, including genomics, electronic health records and bibliography, and applying advanced analytics methods to discover useful patterns. Big Data in healthcare is in its early...

The eHealthMonitor project provides a platform that generates a Personal eHealth Knowledge Space (PeKS) as an aggregation of all knowledge sources (e.g., EHR and PHR) relevant for the provision of individualized personal eHealth services. This is realised by integrating service-oriented architecture, knowledge engineering, multiagent systems, and...

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...

As the number of older people in Europe grows, increasing healthy life years is a priority. Cognitive decline, dementia (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, AD), sleep disturbances and depression, all related to psychological distress and anxiety, are significant drivers of reduced quality of life in older adults. This project builds on evidence that...

Beta-amyloid peptide, a component of senile plaques and generated by proteolytic cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), is a key factor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD). Beta-amyloid peptide has been shown to influence negatively some important mitochondrial activities such as reducing the efficiency of ATP-production via...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly, a syndrome characterized by loss of memory and cognitive decline. AD has a dramatic socio-economical impact that is foreseen to worsen in the near future unless a cure is found. The pathology is triggered by the accumulation of Aβ oligomers that begins a cascade...

Protein phosphorylation is a process that activates biological and cellular pathways. This process is carried out by enzymes called protein kinases that add phosphates to proteins. Protein kinases are crucial drug targets involved in the onset and progression of human diseases such as cancer and Alzheimers disease. Growing evidence suggests that...

The connectome is a map of all neural connections in the brain that can provide information about the brain’s (re)wiring in neurological diseases, injuries, or drugs responses. The use of connectomes in clinical practice has enormous potential to improve treatment efficacy, enhance patient stratification, disease characterization, and ultimately...