A novel approach to detecting Alzheimer’s early

The grey matter in the brain may hold vital clues for early, accurate detection in Alzheimer’s, and potentially also help pharma to find new drug treatments.

Oxford University spinout Oxford Brain Diagnostics is hoping to unlock some of these clues by introducing a new test that can spot the signs of dementia as early as possible, allowing for earlier intervention and better clinical research.

“The signs and symptoms of dementia are very subtle in the earlier stages,” says Dr Steven Chance, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “We need more accurate and better biomarkers both for drug development and to help clinicians make the right decisions earlier in the process for patients and their families.”

Advanced clinical diagnosis methods have usually focused on measuring the build-up of amyloid plaques and/or tau tangles, which represent the main hypothesis about what actually causes Alzheimer’s disease.

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