CIEN is looking for volunteers for its precision medicine project for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

• Thanks to the funding from the European Union and its Next Generation funds within the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, these projects are being carried out to improve the lives of people with neurodegenerative diseases.
• At CIEN, we are working with precision medicine to improve the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
• The SCAP-AD project is looking for volunteers to validate new ultra-sensitive diagnostic methods for the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

Madrid, September 30, 2024. At CIEN (Center for Neurological Diseases Research), and thanks to the funding from the European Union’s Next Generation funds, research is being conducted on how to apply precision medicine to improve the diagnosis and treatment of dementias, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

One of these CIEN projects, called SCAP-AD, (Cognitive Screening and Personalized Approach for Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias) aims to validate precision medicine tools based on online cognitive assessment, genetic risk stratification, and blood biomarkers for identifying preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.

SCAP-AD is a multicenter project coordinated by CIEN, involving 13 centers from 8 Autonomous Communities. Two large population cohorts will be created for this purpose. On one hand, a digital cohort will explore the use of online cognitive assessment through a web platform targeting people over 60 years old across the entire country. The link to access this platform is already available. On the other hand, a large clinical validation cohort will be generated, also targeting people over 60 years old without a dementia diagnosis, who will undergo more in-depth studies, including neurological and neuropsychological evaluations, biomarker analysis (including ultra-sensitive blood techniques), and imaging tests using the world’s most powerful 3-tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, available at CIEN.

The main goal of the project is to improve the diagnosis and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by integrating precision medicine tools that allow the development of strategies to identify cases of the disease in very early stages.

For CIEN’s Scientific Director, Dr. Pascual Sánchez Juan, “SCAP-AD is a pioneering project that, as a forerunner, outlines the future of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. The project will validate new, more precise and cost-effective technologies in a large population, which, either independently or combined using artificial intelligence, will help us detect the early signs of the disease, enabling interventions at very early stages.”

In early May 2024, a campaign began to recruit participants for both cohorts. People over 60 years old, without a dementia diagnosis and without other relevant pathologies, who are interested in participating or would like more information, can write to proyectoscapad@fundacioncien.es. To participate in the Clinical Cohort at CIEN, interested individuals can call 913 85 22 00 or visit the center located at Calle Valderrebollo 5, Alzheimer’s Foundation Reina Sofía Center (28031, Madrid). For the Online Cohort, interested parties can directly access the website https://proyectoscapad.es.

This effort is essential for advancing research and early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, and all those interested are invited to join this important initiative.