Welcome to the seventh
issue of the Neuronet newsletter!
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We hope this newsletter finds you well. This seventh newsletter issue provides you with up-to-date insights on the Innovative Medicines Initiative’s (IMI) research efforts to tackle challenges in neurodegeneration (ND).
Although COVID-19 keeps on impacting our lives, we continue our efforts in striving for a collaborative research approach that is led by collective decision-making via our Scientific Coordination Board and overcoming physical barriers by leveraging on technology.
On that matter, we enjoyed fruitful discussions during our sixth Scientific Coordination Board (SCB) meeting that is playing a central role in determining how Neuronet should direct its efforts. As leaders of IMI neurodegeneration projects, the SCB members bring wide-ranging scientific, clinical, R&D and computational expertise to the table, helping us to identify key challenges and priorities to address.
Apart from providing you with project updates, we also interviewed Lena Sannemann from the MOPEAD consortium as well as Colin Birkenbihl (collaborator in the RADAR-AD, EPAD and AETIONOMY projects) as part of our spotlight on early-career researchers. On the same note, we invite early-career researchers to submit their abstract for a Quick Oral or Poster presentation at the upcoming virtual Alzheimer Europe Conference. Accepted presentations will be awarded with a free three-day registration!
This issue also includes some exciting virtual events you can register for, such as the IMI impact on dementia, the EQIPD Summer School and the Fraunhofer Symposiumn on the Human Brain PHARMACOME.
Happy reading and stay safe!
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Carlos Díaz
Neuronet Project Coordinator
CEO, SYNAPSE
Research Management Partners
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Lennert Steukers
Neuronet Project Leader
Associate Director,
Clinical Scientist, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV
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Interviews ___________________________________________________________________
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Spotlight on early-career researchers: a Neuronet interview with Lena Sannemann
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In this Neuronet interview, we talk to Lena Sannemann who is a doctoral candidate at the University Hospital Cologne’s centre for memory disorders. Lena is psychologist by background and fascinated about the brain as well as neuropsychology in general.
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Spotlight on early-career researchers: a Neuronet interview with Colin Birkenbihl
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We spoke to Colin Birkenbihl who is involved in the AETIONOMY, EPAD and RADAR-AD projects and recently launched the ADataViewer as part of his work at Fraunhofer SCAI.
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News ___________________________________________________________________
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Neuronet convenes sixth Scientific
Coordination Board meeting
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On 22 March, Neuronet convened the sixth Scientific Coordination Board meeting (SCB). The Board plays a central role in determining how Neuronet should direct its efforts, helping us to identify key challenges and priorities to address.
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Ioannis Pandis (Janssen) new Interim Project Lead for
IDEA-FAST
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The IDEA-FAST project is pleased to welcome Ioannis Pandis as the Interim Project Lead for IDEA-FAST, who is taking over the role from Fred Baribaud. Ioannis is already contributing to the project as the Industry Lead for WP3 (Digital Devices & Technology) and will be able to ensure a smooth transition as we move from completing the Feasibility Study and start preparations for the Clinical Validation Study.
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European researchers improve the sensitivity to detect the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease
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European researchers from the Amyloid Imaging to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease (AMYPAD) consortium analysed whether the method used in clinical practice to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) using the Flutemetamol tracer, is also capable to detect the earliest stages of the disease. The study concludes that this system, based on visual read, is useful for distinguishing the initial phases, and proposes a new methodology for determining the extent of the pathology in different regions of the brain.
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RADAR-AD project members gather online for the second annual consortium meeting to discuss progress and future plans
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The annual RADAR-AD meeting provides consortium members from various work streams with the opportunity to come together and present the progress of their work, share challenges and discuss future ideas.
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Parkinson’s Research in Ireland event series 2.0 was a huge success & video recordings are now online!
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The “Parkinson’s Research in Ireland” seminar series 2.0 took place on April 8th and 15th, 2021. Both sessions were chaired by Dr Niamh Connolly of the RCSI University of Medicine & Health Science (formerly Royal College of Surgeons Ireland).
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The final EPAD dataset is now available on the Alzheimer’s Disease Workbench
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The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) consortium, in their partnership with Aridhia, are proud to announce that the EPAD V.IMI dataset has been incorporated into the Alzheimer’s Disease Workbench to provide even greater value to the global neuroscience research community.
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Mobilise-D and IDEA-FAST are pleased to announce the creation of the Digital Health Catalyst (DHC)
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The Digital Health Catalyst has been created to foster the next generation of early career researchers and clinicians in the field of digital healthcare. It brings together the collective expertise in digital health across the two Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Consortia for maximum learning, collaboration and impact.
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RADAR-CNS researchers investigate the relationship between major depression symptom severity and Fitbit derived measures of sleep in a large longitudinal dataset
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Sleep problems tend to vary according to the course of the disorder in individuals with mental health problems such as depression. Research in mental health has associated sleep pathologies with depression. However, the gold standard for sleep assessment, polysomnography (PSG), is not suitable for long-term, continuous monitoring of daily sleep, and methods such as sleep questionnaires rely on subjective recall, which is qualitative and inaccurate. Wearable devices, on the other hand, provide a low-cost and convenient means to monitor sleep in home settings.
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Apart from convening the Scientific Coordination Board meeting, we were also busy in bringing expert members from the different projects together to work on areas of common interest. Click on the respective buttons to lear more about the most recent meetings.
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Events __________________________________________________________________
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IMI's neurodegeneration Early Career Researchers can submit an abstract to present at the Alzheimer Europe Conference
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Neuronet invites Early Career Researchers from the Innovative Medicines Initiative's neurodegeneration research projects to present their research at the upcoming Alzheimer Europe Conference.
Applicants whose abstracts are accepted for a Quick Oral or Poster presentation will be granted a free registration to attend the three-day virtual conference. The deadline for submissions is 30 June.
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Online EQIPD Summer School “Improving preclinical data quality and robustness” 2021 Now open for registration!
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We’re excited to announce the third EQIPD Summer School entitled “Improving preclinical data quality and robustness”! Because of the pandemic, the 2021 edition will be held online.
Dates: 1-2 June, 8-9 June, each day from 13:00 to 17:00 CEST
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IMI impact series – Online events – June 2021 – Registration open!
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IMI is organising a series of online live sessions on IMI’s Impact, where key actors will explore the challenges and demonstrate how IMI contributed. The Initiative has decided to showcase IMI’s impact in specific areas, starting with three topics: diabetes, dementia and the relatively new field of data management. They will analyse the challenges and show how IMI-funded projects helped move the needle.
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Symposium on the Human Brain PHARMACOME
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PHARMACOMEs are way to represent complex biological, chemical and pharmaceutical data and knowledge in a structured, searchable and interpretable form. PHARMACOMEs thus integrate relevant data and knowledge about biological processes, pathophysiology mechanisms and the known chemistry that modulates both. PHARMACOMEs also allow modelling these known modulations in order to predict future compounds as candidate novel modulators.
The purpose of the symposium is to introduce the PHARMACOME concept and to highlight the utility of this specialised knowledge graph for the identification of druggable pathophysiology mechanisms.
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Neuronet project newsletters ___________________________________________________________________
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What we are reading ___________________________________________________________________
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Alzheimer’s disease treatments:
The Need for a Holistic Approach
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As part of the latest digital supplement to Value & Outcomes Spotlight, the International Society of Outcomes Research (ISPOR), published a series of editorials and articles on the need for the adoption of a more holistic approach towards Alzheimer’s disease (AD) treatments.
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Funding ___________________________________________________________________
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This project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 821513. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and Parkinson’s UK.
Any related content solely reflects the author's view and neither IMI nor the European Union, EFPIA, or any Associated Partners are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
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