Alzheimer Nederland facilitates 18 important studies to better understand the diseases that cause dementia and to improve the diagnosis of the diseases. Drug research has yielded a great deal of knowledge in recent decades, but unfortunately no new treatment for people with dementia has yet been found. Funding this fundamental research is essential for future medicines.
‘For dementia treatments, we first need a better understanding of how disease processes lead to dementia and how we can influence, prevent and eventually stop these processes,’ says Marco Blom, head of scientific research at Alzheimer Nederland. ‘The research we are now funding will help with that. For example, we enable research into the role of the immune system, into the blood vessels in the brain, but also into methods to improve memory.’
Necessary investments in biomedical research
It is difficult for researchers in the Netherlands to obtain funding for this type of research. That is why Alzheimer Nederland has invested almost € 10 million in such innovative fundamental research in the last four years through its unique ‘Call Biomedical Research’. Since 1994, we have supported a total of € 28 million in fundamental research through this annual funding round. This makes us one of the largest financiers of dementia research in Europe. Blom: ‘We are convinced that together with Dutch and international partners we will be able to make breakthroughs in this type of research even faster.’
To research
The following 18 studies are made possible by Alzheimer Nederland for a total of 2.7 million euros:
- Joost Verhaagen (Netherlands Brain Institute): Reactivating perineuronal net-based plasticity in Alzheimer’s disease
- Jos Prickaerts (Maastricht University): Targeting cAMP-specific PDE isoforms in MCI and Alzheimer’s disease
- Elly Hol (UMC Utrecht): Reactive astrocytes and effect on neural communication in human AD iPSC models
- Aniko Korosi (University of Amsterdam): Early-life stress at the origin of mitochondrial dysfunction in AD
- Louise van der Weerd (Leiden UMC): The weakest vessel: improving vascular dysfunction in mice and men
- Mark Verheijen (VU University Amsterdam): Identification of astrocyte targets to prevent early memory deficits in AD
- Monique Mulder (Erasmus UMC): Desmosterol as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease
- Harro Seelaar (Erasmus UMC): CSF Biomarker Identification Using Protein Expression Approach in Genetic FTD
- Willem de Haan (Free University of Amsterdam): Improving memory function in early Alzheimer’s disease; a tACS-MEG study
- Harold MacGillavry (Utrecht University): Resolving the nanoscale organization of the amyloidogenic machinery at synapses
- Inge R. Holtman (UMC Groningen): Aged brain organoids to study the role of microglia in pathogenesis of AD
- Susanne Kooistra (UMC Groningen): The epigenetic landscape of cellular subtypes in AD
- Alberto De Luca (UMC Utrecht): Strategic white matter connections in vascular cognitive impairment
- Ruud Wijdeven (Leiden UMC): Identifying the receptor for secreted TREM2, a sporadic Alzheimer’s risk gene
- Renzo Jan Maria Riemens (Maastricht University): Molecular validation of Alzheimer’s disease patient-derived neuronal cultures
- Lieke Jäkel (Radboudumc): The multifaceted role of MMPs and TIMPs in AD after immunotherapy
- Gunter Kenis (Maastricht University): Epigenetic signature of microglia driving stress and GR mediated Tau pathology
- Moll van Charante (Amsterdam UMC):Towards better-tailored risk factor management to prevent dementia