Results of the 2024 JPND Call for “Mechanisms and Measurement of Disease Progression in the Early Phase of Neurodegenerative Diseases”

The ten projects were recommended for funding* by an independent, international Peer Review Panel based on scientific excellence with input from the JPND advisory board on patient and public involvement. Proposals are presented in alphabetical order according to their acronym.

*Please note this is a provisional decision. The final approval from national funding agencies is still ongoing. 

Expand-RED
Exploring the impact of somatic expansion rates on quantitative progression marker candidates (Voice) in early stages of repeat expansion disorders

Coordinator:
G. Bernhard Landwehrmeyer, University Ulm, Germany

Partners:
Susanne T. de Bot, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
Blair Leavitt, University of British Columbia, Canada
Jan Rusz, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Ludger Schöls, University of Tübingen. Germany
Ferdinando Squitieri, Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, Italy
Grzegorz Witkowski, Military Institute of Aviation Medicine, Poland

Figaro
Finding Alzheimer’s disease progression markers by CSF proteomics

Coordinator:
Betty Tijms, Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands

Partners:
Tormod Fladby, University of Oslo, Norway
Jean Georges, Alzheimer Europe, Luxembourg
Stefan Lichtenthaler, Technical University of Munich, Germany

HistoPark
MRI-based in vivo histology of disease progression in early stage PD

Coordinator:
Nikolaus Weiskopf, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany

Partners:
Anneke Alkemade, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Yasser Iturria-Medina, McGill University, Canada
Norbert Kovács, University of Pécs, Hungary
Stéphane Lehéricy, Sorbonne-Université, France
Pierre Maquet, University of Liège, Belgium

IGNITEMIND
IgLON5 disease: NeuroInflammatory Tauopathy and Encephalopathy: the Model for Inflammation
towards early treatment of NeuroDegeneration

Coordinator:
Maarten Titulaer, ErasmusMC, Netherlands

Partners:
Bart Eggen, University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands
Romana Höftberger, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Frank Leypoldt, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Natalia Malek-Chudzik, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland
Nico Melzer, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany

LeakyPark
Gut barrier permeability: a modulator of Parkinson’s disease?

Coordinator:

Pascal Derkinderen, Inserm, France

Partners:
Silvia Cerri, Mondino Foundation, Italy
Francois Cossais, University of Kiel, Germany
Kristina Kulcsárová, P.J. Safarik University, Slovakia

LysMitoPAD
Spatiotemporal Organelle Dynamics in Early Neurodegeneration: cell type and disease specificity in
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease

Coordinator:
Susanne Wegmann, Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), Germany

Partners:
Michela Deleidi, Institut Imagine, INSERM UMR1163, France
Wilma D.J. Van de Berg, Amsterdam UMC, Netherlands
Gökmen Zararsiz, Erciyes University, Turkey
Chiara Zurzolo, Institut Pasteur, France

MESEPAD
MEchanisms of SEx-specific vulnerability of Parvalbumin interneurons in early Alzheimer’s Disease

Coordinator:
Carlos Saura, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Partners:
Alberto Lleó, Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Spain
Ronald E. Van Kesteren, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
Laure Verret, CNRS UMR5169, Paul Sabatier University, France

SPARC-AD
Integrating multimodal, multiscale imaging and artificial intelligence for early amyloid detection in
their native environment

Coordinator:
Oxana Klementieva, Lund University, Sweden

Partners:
Martin Becker, University of Rostock, Germany
Aleksandra Szczepankiewicz, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland
Darcy Wagner, McGill University, Canada

TAGCNINE
TArGeting C9orf72 function in ALS/FTD

Coordinator:
Volker Haucke, Leibniz Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie, Germany

Partners:
Fang Fang, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
R. Jeroen Pasterkamp, University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands
Magdalini Polymenidou, University of Zurich, Switzerland

TRACE-PD
Tracking the mechanisms of disease progression and functional compensation in the early phase of
Parkinson’s disease

Coordinator:
David Pedrosa, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany

Partners:
Rick Helmich, Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands
Irena Rektorová, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Thilo van Eimeren, University of Cologne, Germany
Josefine Waldthaler, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden