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LIGA receives 1 million US $ funding for EPIC4AD project

On Dec 24, 2020, the US-based Cure Alzheimers Fund announced that they will support a new research project initiated and led by LIGA on the identification of novel protein biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. The project (“Personalized disease prediction for Alzheimer’s disease using proteome profiling: the EPIC4AD study”) is embedded into the EPIC cohort and follows a similar approach as the “EPIC4PD” study already ongoing in our lab. The project will generate proteome profiles in pre-disease plasma samples from individuals who later developed Alzheimer’s disease to investigate whether these can be used to derive novel biomarkers allowing for a very early disease prediction. The project is led by LIGA researchers Drs. Christina Lill and Lars Bertram and will collaborate with partners from the USA, UK, Sweden, and Denmark. If successful, our study will be able to predict Alzheimer’s years before the onset of first symptoms, thus effectively defining target groups for early prevention strategies once these become available. Owing to the parallel conduct of the EPIC4PD project, which follows a similar aim for an early detection of Parkinson’s disease, we will also be able to compare biomarker profiles across both of these devastating neurodegenerative disorders. Funding: Cure Alzheimers Fund (from April 2021 – March 2023).