European Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia (EPAD)
The European Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia (EPAD) is a European collaborative research to expand knowledge about the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's and thus prevent dementia before symptoms appear.
Promoted in 2015 by the Scientific Director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Program of Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Dr. José Luis Molinuevo, and Dr. Craig Ritchie of the University of Edinburgh, EPAD is made up of 38 European institutions, from research centers, universities, European pharmaceutical laboratories and patient associations.
The objective of EPAD is to develop an infrastructure that allows carrying out concept tests to accelerate early decision making in the development of candidate drugs and their possible combinations to prevent Alzheimer's disease.
The project plans to establish a cohort of more than 1,000 participants and perform regular reviews, cognitive, genetic, magnetic resonance tests, and extractions of blood, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid. Of the total of these participants, hundreds will be invited to be part of an adaptive clinical trial.
BBRC participates actively in the different working groups of the project, is present in its Executive Board and has already recruited more than 200 participants of the Alfa Study, with the expectation of including 250.
The project has a duration of 5 years and has a budget of 64 million euros. EPAD is funded by grant number 115736 of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, which is a joint initiative of the research and innovation program of the European Commission Horizon 2020 and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
EPAD National lead in Spain
José Luis Molinuevo, scientific director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Program and co-author of the EPAD study protocol.
Molinuevo is co-author of more than 300 scientific articles with more than 15,000 citations in prestigious journals, and a 63 h index. In addition, he participates in networks related to the standardization of procedures and clinical criteria of Alzheimer’s disease, such as the Alzheimer Biomarker Standarization Initiative, the International Working Group, the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) Research framework, the CSF Appropriate Use Criteria Workgroup, the Standardization of CSF Preanalytics Working Group and the Subjective Cognitive Decline Initiative (SCD-I) Working Group.
