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Project

Interreg project "Memories".

Neurodegenerative diseases represent a heavy and increasing burden for patients and their care-givers, and the health care system in general. Therefore, novel strategies for early diagnosis and effective treatments are needed to stop this societal time bomb. Most patients develop Alzheimer's disease late in life without strong genetic predispositions. The disease is assumed to be triggered by a combination of physiological factors, in particular ageing and environmental factors, such as pollutants, and lifestyle. The molecular and cellular mechanisms affected by these factors are not understood, and are the subject of the new project 'Herinneringen' ('Memories') (01.01.2018 - 31.12.2020). Mechanistic understanding will be acquired by applying differential genomics analysis on neuronal cell models derived from pluripotent stem cells generated from healthy individuals, individuals with mild cognitive impairment, and patients with various degrees of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, following in-vitro exposure to toxins. This information will then be validated against biological samples from patients representing similar human cohorts. Advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the earliest stages of dementia development will facilitate the creation of novel tools for early diagnosis. New opportunities for development of drugs addressing early events in disease progression are also expected to emerge from the project as well, and this combined with better methods for pre-clinical and clinical efficacy assessment of novel drugs. The new knowledge will also enable to generate improved animal models of Alzheimer's disease required for development of novel therapeutic strategies. Finally, the project may help to implement preventive measures to decrease the incidence of Alzheimer's disease, by for instance advocating life style changes or reducing emission of neurotoxic substances.
Date:1 Jan 2018 →  31 Dec 2020
Keywords:NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES
Disciplines:Laboratory medicine, Neurosciences, Biological and physiological psychology, Cognitive science and intelligent systems, Developmental psychology and ageing
Project type:Collaboration project