ALFA study data now available to the international scientific community through AD Workbench

For several years, the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) has been building one of the world’s most comprehensive cohorts for the study of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: the ALFA study. Now, thanks to a collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (AD Data Initiative), researchers worldwide can request to access data from the ALFA+ study at no cost through AD Workbench, the AD Data Initiative’s secure, cloud-based data sharing and research environment.

The ALFA+ study transforms years of scientific work, longitudinal follow-up and in-depth characterisation of cohort participants into a highly valuable resource for the international research community.

The dataset brings together variables covering demographics, clinical diagnosis, medical history, medication, vital signs, cognitive and behavioural assessments, APOE genotype, magnetic resonance imaging and PET-derived measures, and cerebrospinal fluid biomarker status.

Sharing data of this kind has a direct impact on the speed and quality of scientific progress. Making integrated, longitudinal data such as those from ALFA+ available to the research community makes it possible to replicate findings, design new studies and identify synergies with other international cohorts that can accelerate our understanding of risk factors, disease progression and potential strategies for early detection and prevention.

The availability of these data will support cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of Alzheimer’s disease risk profiles during the preclinical stage, the integration of multimodal data, the comparison of results across studies, the validation of findings in independent populations and greater harmonisation among international cohorts.

“Making ALFA+ data available to the international scientific community greatly expands its potential and reinforces the BBRC’s commitment to open, collaborative and responsible research,” says Dr Arcadi Navarro, Director of the BBRC.

“This is the kind of open, responsible data sharing Alzheimer's research needs more of. The BBRC spent years building ALFA+ into one of the most comprehensive preclinical cohorts in the world. Now, through AD Workbench, researchers everywhere can access this dataset to answer important questions about how to stage the disease and help inform strategies for earlier diagnosis and care for people with Alzheimer’s,” says Niranjan Bose, Interim Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative.

The ALFA study: a unique cohort for understanding Alzheimer’s before symptoms appear

The ALFA study, which stands for Alzheimer’s and Families, was launched in 2013 by the Pasqual Maragall Foundation with the support of the ”la Caixa” Foundation. It is one of the most comprehensive research platforms for the study of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease worldwide.

ALFA+ is its longitudinal substudy, which conducts in-depth follow-up of cognitively healthy adults with the aim of identifying the earliest biological changes associated with the disease.

A secure environment for collaborative research

The data is available through AD Workbench, a secure, cloud-based data sharing and analytics environment that allows researchers worldwide to share, access, and analyse high-quality data without the need for transfer. Access is subject to a governance model jointly developed by the BBRC and AD Data Initiative, which establishes clear criteria to ensure rigorous and responsible scientific use.

The BBRC has played an active role in preparing, documenting and harmonising the data, as well as in defining the access and governance model. This work enables the data to be reused while preserving its quality and traceability, as well as the security and confidentiality of study participants.

A strategic, long-term collaboration

The publication of the data on AD Workbench has been made possible by the agreement signed between the BBRC and AD Data Initiative at the end of 2025.

This initial data release marks the beginning of an ongoing contribution. The BBRC and AD Data Initiative will work to promote the interoperability of ALFA+ data and its potential integration with data from other studies, increasing their scientific value and facilitating larger-scale joint analyses.

The initiative forms part of the BBRC’s strategy to promote open and collaborative science through secure, transparent and responsible access to data.

Interested researchers can access the data through AD Workbench at alzheimersdata.org, where they will find a description of the study, the data dictionary and the access request form, or by scanning this QR code.