Interchangeability of blood‐based biomarkers and PET to identify Alzheimer's disease pathology in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring
Synopsis: This research explores how well new blood-based tests can detect signs of Alzheimer’s disease in people experiencing early symptoms, such as mild cognitive impairment (often a precursor to dementia) or mild dementia. The study found that two leading blood biomarkers — plasma Aβ42/40 and p-Tau217 — closely match results from amyloid PET scans. Amyloid PET is a specialized brain imaging technique that can reveal amyloid plaques, one of the key biological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. The study reinforces amyloid PET as the reference standard for defining pathology and validating emerging biomarkers, while highlighting how blood tests can complement imaging in scalable screening and patient selection pathways. Overall, the findings suggest that the future of Alzheimer’s diagnosis will rely on a multimodal approach — combining advanced imaging, fluid biomarkers like blood tests, and clinical information. Together, these tools can enable more confident diagnoses, improve trial enrolment, and guide therapeutic decisions.
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Biomarkers in patients with clinical signs of mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer's disease but without amyloid deposits on positron emission tomography: Results from Bio-Hermes Study participants
Synopsis: This study examined people who show mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer’s symptoms but do not have the usual amyloid buildup in their brains (Aβ−), using data from the Bio‑Hermes Study to compare them with both cognitively normal individuals and amyloid‑positive patients. The researchers found that neurofilament light (NfL) was the only biomarker that reliably distinguished cognitively impaired amyloid‑negative individuals from amyloid‑negative people with normal cognition, while a wide range of other biomarkers—including cytokines and two major proteomic platforms—showed no meaningful differences between these groups. These results suggest that many emerging blood‑based biomarkers do not yet explain why some people experience cognitive decline without amyloid involvement, highlighting an urgent need for new biomarkers to uncover the underlying biology of non‑amyloid‑related cognitive impairment.
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
AI-Driven Recruitment for Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Trials: A Pilot Analysis on the A4 Dataset
Date: 28th July 2025
Presentation type: Oral presentation at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2025 in Toronto, Canada
Synopsis: embargoed
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Imaging - Advancing Biomarker Research for Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis
Presentation type: invited editorial in the Journal for Clinical Studies
Synopsis: editorial discussion on the multimodal use of PET imaging in combination with novel blood based biomarkers to support streamlined clinical trial delivery.
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
AI-Driven Classification of Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia from Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Presentation type: co-authored journal manuscript with the TRACK-FA consortium in the Annals of Neurology Journal
Synopsis: development and validation of novel brain and spinal cord volumetric biomarkers for Friedreich’s Ataxia as part of the TRACK-FA study.
Therapeutic Indication: Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA)
The Potential of Blood-Based Biomarkers & Digital Assessments in Transforming Research and Clinical Practice
Date: February 26th 2025
Presentation type: invited podium presentation and discussion at the GAP-Net Site Optimization Conference 2025
Synopsis: invited presentation to discuss the critical role of imaging in an evolving AD biomarker landscape, specifically in combination with novel blood based biomarker tests. Joint panel with C-level experts from diagnostics and pharma companies.
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Comparison of two natural history studies as part of the HD-IH consortium: a use case for historical external control group matching in clinical trials
Presentation type: poster presentation at the 20th Annual HD Therapeutics Conference in Palm Springs, CA.
Synopsis: analysis of data from the HD-IH consortium to show that external control groups can support regulatory decision-making in clinical trials, especially rare diseases like Huntington’s disease (HD).
Therapeutic Indication: Huntington’s disease (HD)
Quantification Supports Amyloid PET Visual Assessment of Challenging Cases: Results from the AMYPAD Diagnostic and Patient Management Study
Presentation type: co-authored journal manuscript with the AMYPAD consortium in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine
Synopsis: analysis of the AMYPAD study data that shows how automated quantitative analysis of amyloid PET data can support and streamline visual expert assessment.
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
A multi-stage approach to screen Amyloid status using plasma p-Tau217 prior to confirmatory Imaging applied to the Bio-Hermes Trial
Presentation type: oral presentation at the 17th Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) conference in Madrid, Spain.
Synopsis: analysis of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Bio-Hermes data to investigate how blood-based-biomarkers can be operationalised in conjunction with PET imaging.
Therapeutic Indication: Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Association of Vascular Risk Factors and Cerebrovascular Pathology with Alzheimer Disease Pathologic Changes in Individuals Without Dementia
Presentation type: co-authored journal manuscript with the AMYPAD consortium in the journal Neurology
Synopsis: investigation of links between vascular risk factors, cerebral small vessel disease, and amyloid levels and their combined effect on downstream AD biomarkers.
