Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

A Methylation Profiling Diagnostic for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease

Project description

An accurate selection of Alzheimer’s patients for clinical trials

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. There is no cure, and the clinical trial failure rate for novel therapies is over 99 %. This daunting situation has led scientists to focus on the enrolment of prodromal AD (P-AD) patients in clinical trials. This is complex, considering that all current methodologies (PET, MRI) lead to a large number of false positive and negative cases. To address this problem, the EU-funded MAP-AD project has developed machine learning algorithms that can identify specific methylation patterns in mitochondrial DNA isolated from the blood samples of P-AD patients, thus enabling for the first time the rapid and accurate selection of patients to be enrolled into clinical trials independent of amyloid beta status.

Objective

Each year an estimated 40M people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) globally, and a new case is diagnosed every 4 seconds, leading to a substantial socioeconomic burden of over €800B annually. Despite this large need, currently there is no cure available for AD. Moreover, the clinical trial failure rate for novel AD therapies being tested is over 99%. Every failed trial leads to large financial losses for the trial sponsor, and as a result there is an urgent need to reimagine AD clinical trial design.

Recently, there has been a paradigm shift in the design of AD clinical trials, with most new trials now focusing on enrollment of Prodromal AD (P-AD) patients. However, patient recruitment in the P-AD stage is challenging as current methodologies (PET, MRI) lead to a large number of false positive and negative cases. As a result, optimal stratification of P-AD patients during clinical trial recruitment, remains an unmet market need.

To meet this market need, ADmit Therapeutics, an innovative diagnostics SME, aims to deliver MAP-AD: an automated epigenetic analysis platform for accurate prediction of progression status of P-AD patients. The MAP-AD platform relies on novel machine learning algorithms that can identify specific methylation patterns in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) isolated from the blood samples of P-AD patients. This allows for a rapid and accurate selection of patients to be enrolled into a clinical trial independent of Aβ status, for the first time.

During this EIC Accelerator project, we will finalize the development of our predictive algorithms together with a dedicated software interface, and perform clinical validation in collaboration with our hospital partners to deliver a finalized platform that is ready for commercial launch. We have a strong network of partners such as Bellvitge University Hospital, Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, CITA-Alzheimer, Hospital Moisès Broggi, Hospital General de l'Hospitalet, Janssen, Roche who will be the early adopters of MAP-AD.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

ADMIT THERAPEUTICS S.L.
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 408 055,00
Address
C/ JOAN XXIII 10
08950 ESPLUGUES DE LLOBREGAT
Spain

See on map

SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 3 568 650,00
My booklet 0 0