Research Projects

DayGuide introduces a novel ICT-based system, supporting older adults suffering from mild cognitive impairment and early dementia in their daily life and their families. The system also supports persons living alone with no care person available on a regular basis. Persons with cognitive impairment experience various domestic challenges, depriving...

Worldwide, 50 million people suffer from dementia, which is caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in 70% of the cases. There is no treatment to stop, reverse or prevent AD. AD is pathologically defined by amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, implying that it is a single disease entity. Still, patients vary greatly in rate of decline and...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) imposes an enormous personal burden on patients and caregivers, as well as a tremendous socio-economic impact on society. However, there is a paucity of pharmaceutical or interventional strategies that have a proven impact on the incidence or progression of AD. One reason is that most models are based on familial (early...

The goal of this project is to decipher the exact cellular and molecular mechanisms by which human microglia transduce toxicity to neurons in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Genetics revealed that microglia are one of the central players in the pathogenesis of AD. I and others have characterized the phenotypic response of microglia in AD using...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder which affects 47 million patients worldwide. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms leading to sporadic-AD remain unknown and preventive treatment is not yet available. Lately, the ubiquitin-proteasome system has been implicated in AD. Dr. Merbl’s laboratory recently...

How can we recognize that a person with dementia is at the end of life? When we are dying, our physical, mental, and social abilities are gradually declining. No reliable method of predicting perceived dying currently exists although the technology is available (sensors, algorithms). The aim of Decoding Death and Dying in Dementia by Digital...

Our memory is essential for all aspects of our lives. Memories are encoded in the brain by coordinated neuronal activity in the hippocampus. Disruption of this coordination is associated with neurological/psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia affecting spatial and social memories. Emerging data suggests that the gut...

Alzheimers Disease (AD) is an adult-onset disorder characterized by progressive neuronal loss and synaptic dysfunction, leading to severe cognitive decline. Nuclear loss and pathological inclusions of TDP-43 protein have been identified in 20-50% of AD patients, which associate with higher odds of cognitive decline, and faster brain atrophy rates...

Five out of ten diseases leading to long term-disability are related to the brain, including stroke, depression or dementia. Despite tremendous progress in neurotechnology, there is still no effective treatment option available for many brain-related disorders. A very promising approach to treat brain disorders uses transcranial electric or...

Health scientific discovery and innovation are expected to quickly move forward under the so called “fourth paradigm of science”, which relies on unifying the traditionally separated and heterogeneous high-performance computing and big data analytics environments. Under this paradigm, the DeepHealth project will provide HPC computing power at the...

The PERADES Programme (Defining Genetic, Polygenic and Environmental Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, using multiple powerful cohorts, focussed Epigenetics and Stem cell metabolomics) will find new susceptibility genes for early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. It will take all genetic findings and test for relationships with life- style...

The aim of the study is to understand more about genetic FTD, particularly in those who have mutations in the progranulin (GRN), microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) and chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) genes.