Research Projects

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 last two decades have witnessed the increasing role of patient, user and civil society organizations (POs and CSOs) in the production of knowledge on diseases and health problems. Rich and detailed studies have shown that this phenomenon entails new forms of activism. It also questions the modes of governance of knowledge, as well as the role...

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...

Pharmaceutical industry, as well as basic science, depend on robust data and scientific rigor as key drivers for decision making, patent strength and time-to-market, which in turn will determine knowledge gain and availability of new treatments to patients. Recent publications report challenges with the robustness, rigor, and/or validity of...

'We aim develop in-vivo imaging biomarker of multidrug transporter function as a generic tool for the prediction, diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis of major CNS diseases, as well as to provide support and guidance for therapeutic interventions. Multidrug transporters actively transport substrates (including multiple CNS drugs) against...

During this fellowship at Dublin City University (Ireland), the researcher will enhance, significantly, the clinical utility of existing traditionally used cognitive tests, particularly as it relates to the early detection and accurate diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Cognitive difficulties represent the hallmark of many...

A persistent challenge in unravelling mechanisms that regulate memory function is how to bridge the gap between inter-molecular dynamics of single proteins, activity of individual synapses and emerging properties of neuronal circuits. The prototype condition of disintegrating neuronal circuits is Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Since the early time of...

Independent living of senior citizens is one of the main challenges linked to the ageing population, due to the impact on: (a) the life of the elderly people, (b) the national health systems, (c) the insurance companies, (d) the relatives and (e) the care-givers. Senior citizens may suffer from a number of diseases, including the decline in...

Ageing is the main correlate of dementia and several other neurodegenerative diseases which currently affect more than 6 million people in Europe. Molecular understanding of these brain conditions is important for their prevention and treatment. In mice, pathological granular structures positive for periodic acid-Schiff stain have been found in the...

Inflammasomes are cytosolic multi-protein complexes that form in response to a wide range of pathogens, tissue damage, and other harmful stimuli. Members of the family of NOD-like receptors (NLRs) sense these pathogen and danger associated molecular patterns, triggering innate immune responses. NLRP3 is a well-studied NLR whose activation by a...

In recent years, it has been demonstrated that sleep not only plays a crucial role in cognitive, emotional, and immunological functions but also helps to clear the brain from metabolic waste products via the recently discovered glymphatic system. A physiological marker closely associated with glymphatic clearance is electroencephalographic (EEG)...

European population is rapidly aging. While it was commonly believed that brain aging leads to neuronal loss, recent studies found that instead the volume of white matter (WM) decreases and WM lesions develop with age. WM degeneration is also a hallmark of multiple neurological disorders including Alzheimers disease or multiple sclerosis...