Research Projects

The overall objective of ADetect is to improve early diagnostics and prognostics of Alzheimer's disease in primary care by utilising novel plasma biomarkers and digital cognitive tests. Misdiagnosis of AD can reach >50% in primary care, which has important consequences both at the personal and societal level. Misdiagnosis, however, can be reduced...

The brain exhibits remarkable capacities to initiate self-repair mechanisms after brain injury as a prerequisite for the recovery of lost functions. ARISE will unveil fundamental, yet not understood principles how brain repair mechanisms are orchestrated and how they can be further enhanced. Due to technical constraints, it was previously...

MRI provides the unique opportunity to investigate the relation between brain structure and function non-invasively, which is key to understand the functioning of the brain and unravel disease processes. An important technique is diffusion MRI (dMRI), which allows to reconstruct the structural connections through which brain structures communicate...

Problem. Coronary heart disease (CHD) patients have a 45% higher risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. Currently, there is no effective therapy to prevent or cure those brain-related diseases. Recent studies showed that physical activity is associated with better cognitive functioning and a risk reduction of cognitive impairment and dementia...

More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. Alzheimer disease (AD) is the main cause of this fatal disorder, without any effective disease modifying therapy. Early diagnosis and lifestyle modifications can significantly reduce the costs of care and treatment. There is no conceptual plan implementing modern diagnostic methods in the...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-associated, irreversible neurodegenerative disorder. Α fundamental neuropathological hallmark of this disease is the accumulation of the amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide in the extracellular space and its aggregation in the brain. Interestingly, critical role for a healthy brain is played by clearance mechanisms of...

Why is the diseased human brain able to produce false beliefs that persist despite evidence to the contrary? Unawareness of neurological disturbances (anosognosia) and Delusions are examples of such false beliefs. Both have productive, narrative features. Both have been independently linked to processes involved in self-reflection, metamemory, and...

Dementia is caused by a range of illnesses and disorders that damage the brain either directly or indirectly. With the rise of the ageing population in the EU, dementia is becoming a serious problem. Digital health interventions have the potential to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of palliative care. Palliative care is an area where...

More than 1 billion people worldwide suffer from compromised mental health due to a brain disorder, such as depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or dementia. While already accounting for 19% of all years lived with disability, the relative share of these disorders is further increasing. Currently, due to the complexity of the...

The emergence of a new era in neuromodulation is led by the intriguing potential of functional materials to replace or control neural activity. The ability to simultaneously analyse neural activity offers the potential to translate signals into a feedback loop for intuitive therapy or even to replace lost neurological functions. However...

Protein misfolding diseases (PMDs) are a large group of human disorders caused by the misfolding of specific proteins. They include conditions with high socio-economic impact, such as Alzheimer’s disease, cystic fibrosis, obesity and type 2 diabetes, and the majority of them remain incurable. Among the >70 PMDs, about 1/3 are caused by misfolding...

ADAM10 (A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease 10), the main α-secretase of the non-amyloidogenic cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP), is a common player in Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Alzheimer´s disease (AD). ADAM10 levels are altered in platelets, plasma, serum, and CSF of elderly with AD, suggesting its potential role as an AD biomarker...