Research Projects

FreeWalker will integrate several proven components of AAL assistive devices and technologies, for a flexible and versatile solution for guiding and monitoring elderly or impaired persons in the outdoor environment and supporting caregivers by providing emergency information to recover disoriented persons safely. The primary target groups in...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a devastating disorder without a cure. Recent research demonstrates a link between AD and exposure to high levels of air pollution, yet detailed understanding of the connection does not exist. Air pollution, a massive public health issue known to pose a major threat to humans, is an increasing global concern. Researchers...

Dementia causes long and oppressive suffering to patients and their relatives and imposes enormous costs on society. About 25 million people suffered from dementia in 2000. As a 4-fold increase of this number is expected by 2050, dementia is one main health issue of the next decades. Alzheimer's disease (AD) covers 60-70% of all dementia cases. No...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent deadly neurodegenerative disorder for which no effective treatment exists as of today. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand the molecular mechanisms behind AD in order to develop more effective treatments against this complex disease. Recent genetic findings have highlighted several...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting millions of people worldwide and therefore it is fundamental to understand its underlying mechanisms. Although the neuropathologies involved in AD are well-described, the effect of those pathologies on neuronal function are poorly understood. Using a transgenic mouse...

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 recent advent of therapeutic Aβ-antibodies has validated amyloid plaques as drug targets in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). They remain expensive, prone to side effects, and clinical benefit is limited. The field needs a safe and cheap drug, preferably a small compound that can be taken orally, and in a preventative way before brain damage has...

In all European countries, social inequalities in health remain pervasive. Much research has identified a number of social stratifiers of health while others have specified the role of the health care system in contributing to the evolution of health inequalities. However, gender, as a social relation of power between men and women, is rarely...

Expansion of a hexanucleotide repeat G4C2 in the non-coding region of chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) is the most common genetic cause for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). ALS is a fatal condition characterized by progressive motor deficits, degeneration of upper and lower motor neurons (MNs) and...

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...

The mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have remained poorly understood while com- mon animal models have not helped in finding efficient therapies for the disease. This pro- ject aims to generate new human cellular models allowing for the purification of specific neural cell types involved in AD. We generate patient neural cells through...

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a major health problem worldwide. New therapies require an accelerated translation of genetic information into mechanistic insights. Given limitations of rodent models, fully humanized models are needed to capture the complexity of the disease process. Human stem cells (iPS) provide great possibilities but are largely...