Generous gift launches study to support research on Alzheimer’s disease

Imperial researchers extend study on exploring markers associated with Alzheimer’s disease thanks to an exceptional donation from Gates Ventures.

A research team at Imperial College London, led by Professor Lefkos Middleton has received a philanthropic gift from Gates Ventures to pursue a three-year research programme aimed at uncovering risk factors and markers of Alzheimer’s disease. The study will be conducted at the Ageing Epidemiology (AGE) Research Unit within Imperial’s School of Public Health.

The study, known as CHARIOT PRO Longitudinal Study (CPLS), will evaluate factors and markers associated with cognitive trajectories in older adults. It is an extension of the highly impactful CHARIOT PRO Sub Study (CPSS), which is one of the largest observational and biomarker enriched studies to examine cognitive changes over time, in cognitively healthy older adults, generating a wealth of detailed data on the pre-clinical and early clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease.  

Through this generous donation, CPLS will become one of the longest and best characterised biomarker-enriched studies worldwide, leveraging the tremendous technological developments in imaging and fluid biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Professor Lefkos Middleton Professor of Neurology at the AGE Research Unit and Principal Investigator of the CPLS study.

The funding from Gates Ventures will allow Imperial researchers to expand the collection of clinical, biological, psychosocial, cognitive and lifestyle measures to a total follow-up period of up to 12 years, creating an outstanding resource for ascertaining dementia risk prediction and progression signatures. Towards these goals, the team at Imperial is working closely with other international research groups within the Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative and the Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium (GNPC), which already includes over 40,000 samples from 30 worldwide studies, including the Imperial CPSS.

Over the next three years, the study will periodically carry out clinical assessments on more than 600 participants over the age of 68 and collect biological samples.  Collected data from the participants will then be analysed to help identify markers and factors associated with clinical and cognitive status.

The new CPLS study will thus become a unique resource for exploring long-term cognitive trajectories and markers of cognitively healthy older adults.

Support for Alzheimer’s research

The objective of the CPLS study is to explore risk factors and identify markers of disease risk and cognitive trajectories in individuals with differing levels of beta-amyloid and tau (two proteins that indicate Alzheimer’s disease).

Professor Lefkos Middleton, Professor of Neurology at the AGE Research Unit and Principal Investigator of the Study said: “Through this generous donation, CPLS will become one of the longest and best characterised biomarker-enriched studies worldwide, leveraging the tremendous technological developments in imaging and fluid biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). We are also grateful to our study participants for their dedication, efforts and commitment towards the success of the study.”

Gates Ventures, which was founded by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, has a long history of supporting Alzheimer’s research, treatment and care. They previously sponsored the Imperial CPSS study, alongside pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Takeda. The gift marks the first philanthropic donation Gates Ventures has made to Imperial.

Niranjan Bose, Managing Director of Health and Life Sciences at Gates Ventures said: "I'm excited about the opportunity that CPLS will provide to answer important questions about health as we age, in particular, to help identify ways to detect dementia at the earliest possible moment. It is only with this capability, that we can improve our ability to predict risk and inform treatment strategies, laying the foundation for a future where early intervention can transform millions of lives. We are excited to partner with Imperial on this transformational study.”

Approximately 55 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia and other diseases characterised by cognitive decline, and around 90% of these cases are due to Alzheimer’s disease. This number is expected to triple to 152 million by 2050, presenting a significant healthcare, economic and societal challenge and an urgent need for therapeutic solutions to cure this debilitating disease affecting the elderly.

Imperial researchers hope the findings from this study will lead to reliable methods in detecting cognitive changes that occur in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, allowing for earlier interventions and greater rates of prognosis.