reMYND launches a project aimed at improving the predictability of preclinical Alzheimer models as part of the prestigious Marie-Curie International Training Network NPlast

The NPlast consortium brings together expertise from different areas of neuroscience in a highly multidisciplinary research and training network, consisting of 12 partners from both the public and private sector. Key objective of the program is to gain more insight in mechanisms of neuronal plasticity that are relevant to aging and brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), herewith addressing one of the biggest challenges of nowadays’ society. 

reMYND’s efforts will be focused on reducing the gap between Alzheimer preclinical and clinical studies by improving the predictive power of AD animal models. Anticipating on the challenging translational step from preclinical to clinical testing in drug development, recent discoveries in human AD biomarker research will constitute the basis for selecting comparable disease read-outs and markers in the animal models. Such (set of) biomarkers will allow for a better mapping of the correlation between pathological changes seen in animal models at different ages and the described disease progression in patients. 

Dick Terwel, Study Director at reMYND’s CRO said: “Considering the recent failure of large clinical trials for new AD therapies, increasing the translational predictability of animal models is one of the most urgent needs in the field. We are very excited about being a founding part of this prestigious network and as such getting access to both the resources and multidisciplinary expertise for carrying out the envisaged work”.

About Nplast

Brain disorders impose an increasing economic and social burden in the member states of the European Union (EU). For most neurodegenerative diseases and many neuropsychiatric disorders no efficient treatment is available and no cure exists. In the next coming years the number of particularly elderly people suffering from brain disorders will tremendously increase. The complexity of these diseases requires a more integrative view of the multiple interactions between genes and environment, synaptic processes and neuronal circuitry. NPlast will bring together expertise from different areas of neuroscience that merge in a highly multidisciplinary research and training program.

The NPlast consortium consists of four partners from the private and eight partners from the public sector and will provide a research training program for fifteen young scientists. The program covers a broad spectrum of disorders and interventions ranging from synaptopathies and trafficking deficiencies to Alzheimer’s disease, and from altering gene expression programs to manipulations of the extracellular matrix of the brain to preserve or restore synaptic function. The key objective of the NPlast training network is to investigate neuroplastic principles that can preserve or restore function and that can be used to ‘rejuvenate’ the brain in the elderly as well as to treat neuropsychiatric conditions in adults.