Research Projects

Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia is a global public health priority. EURO-FINGERS builds upon the successful experiences of two multimodal prevention trials: the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER) and the JPND-funded MIND-AD. The FINGER intervention trial showed that a...

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are the cornerstone of many regenerative medicine projects, and offer researchers a powerful new approach to model and study a range of diseases. The European Bank for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) was established to provide researchers across academia and the pharmaceutical industry with disease...

In response to the need to tackle increasingly complex medical research questions, a growing amount of human health data is being collected, either in routine Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) databases, through research-driven cohort studies, in biobanks or related efforts. However, data sources are typically fragmented and contain information...

The secondary prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) is achievable if we can identify individuals at risk of disease progression defined by biomarker evidence of AD pathology and no or only minimal clinical symptoms and engage them in a standing adaptive clinical trial, of the highest quality, testing multiple interventions.

To achieve this, EPAD...

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are the neurological disorders which will affect a significantly growing number of people in the context of the aging of the EU's population and worldwide. NDs thus constitute a priority for action. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and ND, and a major social and health problem...

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...

Amyloid fibrils form and precipitate in more than 50 incurable human diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. All proteins may be able to form amyloids, at least under certain circumstances. However, aggregation is actually rare as the process of amyloid formation is controlled by a high kinetic barrier: protein sequences have to...

Neuronal circuits in mammalian brain act predominantly via excitatory synapses on dendritic spines. Formation of new spines in adult brain constitutes the structural basis of neuronal plasticity. The underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown but depend essentially on kinase-dependent signalling pathways. Final formation of synapses on...

Although mass spectrometry has brought about major advancements in proteomics in the last decade, protein mass spectrometers still have important limitations. One fundamental limitation is that they require sample ionization, desorption into the gas phase and fragmentation, clearly leading to protein denaturation. Since relevant protein complexes...

There are many efforts at European level to improve our ability to monitor health and to prevent, detect, treat and manage disease so that active and healthy ageing can be promoted. In this project, breakthrough research and radical innovation on new services for integrated care is achieved by means of an efficient and cost-effective service...

The objectives of the project are to identify and evaluate potassium channels of the KCa3.1/KCa2.X type as novel drug targets for the prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular ischemia and neuroprotection in metabolic disease and neurodegenerative disorders associated with vascular pathologies, as a new pathophysiological concept and treatment...

Age represents by far the largest risk factor for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. However, not every person will develop dementia during aging, indicating that age-related processes may not inescapably lead to dementia. The elucidation of the fundamental processes occurring in aging will likely offer new options to prevent or...