The data will be compared to clinical data from the cohorts to help researchers identify the digital measures most closely linked to biological changes. The volunteers will be asked to use a headband to measure sleep and brain activity, an activity tracker to register heart rate and physical activity, and smartphone apps to measure cognitive function, speech, and fine motor control. Up to $2 million of funding will allow the EDoN team to collect digital data from over 600 people who are currently involved in two population-based cohort studies in Australia. Ultimately, the project aims to incorporate the most sensitive and useful measures into an inexpensive and easy-to-use digital Toolkit, likely a combination of apps, wearable or mobile devices, and software. This data will be used to build machine learning models to identify patterns of early disease specific to different neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's. While undetectable to the human eye, these changes can now be picked up by commercially available digital technologies.ĮDoN aims to streamline efforts to collect, integrate and analyse a wealth of digital, clinical and health data to identify behavioural measures that can detect the early stages of disease.
Recent research shows that Alzheimer's also causes subtle early changes in aspects of behaviour such as sleep, speech, interactions, and movement. The initiative currently funds over 30 projects around the world, including a number of promising blood tests and eye scanning techniques to detect early biological changes due to Alzheimer's disease. The Diagnostics Accelerator provides funding to fast-track the development of affordable and accessible diagnostic tools and biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. It brings together global experts in data science, digital technology and neurodegeneration to use measures such as sleep, fine motor control, heart rate, speech, and brain activity to develop digital 'fingerprints' of early disease that could transform dementia research efforts in the future.Īlzheimer's can begin in the brain up to two decades before symptoms start to show, so to give emerging new treatments the best chance of success, doctors need to be able to detect the disease as early as possible and intervene when these treatments could make the greatest difference to people's lives. The funding awarded to the Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) initiative is part of the ADDF Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA), a funding initiative that challenges the global research community to innovate new diagnostic technologies for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.ĮDoN is an ambitious project spearheaded by Alzheimer's Research UK, the UK's leading dementia research charity. NEW YORK, J/PRNewswire/ - The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), a U.S.- based venture philanthropy, has announced up to $2 million of funding for a collaborative research initiative led by UK charity Alzheimer's Research UK that aims to develop a digital Toolkit of apps and wearables to detect the very earliest stage of Alzheimer's.
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