Fluid biomarkers for neurodegenerative dementias

Critical to our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative dementias (NDDs), as well as to finding disease-modifying therapies, is the development of biomarkers for the underlying disease processes.

To facilitate improved diagnostics and drug discovery, we have developed methods to measure markers of amyloid and tau pathology, neuronal injury, astrocytic and microglial activation, as well as neuroinflammation.

I now propose to develop new high-throughput biomarker tools that will enable the analysis of large cohort studies combining clinical, imaging, genetic and biomarker data to provide truly comprehensive molecular disease phenotypes that will inform interventions, drug discovery and translational research, clinical trial stratification, detection of risk and resilience factors (lifestyle-related, as well as genetic), and ultimately drive the quest towards clinically accessible precision medicine in the NDD field.

A large part of the research efforts will be focused on discovering new biomarkers for TDP-43 and α-synuclein pathologies, astrocytic and microglial activation, and lysosomal and synaptic dysfunction, through general and targeted proteomics on brain and CSF samples, and through employing a novel cell type-biased tandem mass tag proteomics workflow.

Promising CSF biomarkers will be examined as potential blood tests using cutting-edge technology with the ultimate goal of implementing them in clinical laboratory practice.