JPND call 2014: “Working Groups to Inform Cohort Studies in Neurodegenerative Disease Research

The following working group proposals have been suggested for funding by the JPND Peer Review Panel based on scientific evaluation and recommendations to the ten sponsoring countries.

User-friendly fact sheets on each working group are available by clicking on the working group titles below:

Proposals to be funded (in no particular order):

HD-READy (High-Dimentional Research in Alzheimer’s Disease)
Coordinator: Professor M. Afran Ikram, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Harmonization and innovation of cognitive, behavioural and functional assessment in neurodegenerative dementias
Coordinator: Dr Alberto Costa, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.

NETCALS (Network of Cohort Assessment in ALS)
Coordinator: Professor Leonard van den Berg, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

21st Century EURODEM
Coordinator: Professor Carol Brayne, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Multi-centre cohort-studies in Lewy-body dementia: Challenges in harmonizing different clinical and biomarker protocols
Coordinator: Professor Dag Aarsland, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway

Developing a methodological framework for trials in presymptomatic neurodegenerative disease – the Presymtomatic Neurodegeneration Initiative (PreNI)
Coordinator: Dr Jonathan Rohrer, University College London, London, UK

BioLoC-PD: Harmonization of biomarker assessment in longitudinal cohort studies in Parkinson’s disease
Coordinator: Professor Daniela Berg, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Tübingen, Germany

Dementia Outcome Measures: charting new territory
Coordinator: Professor Gail Mountain, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Body fluid biobanking of longitudinal cohorts in neurodegenerative diseases
Coordinator: Dr Charlotte Teunissen, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Realising the potential of cohort studies to determine the vascular contribution to neurodegeneration
Coordinator: Professor Joanna Wardlaw, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Please refer to the call secretariat for further details:

Dr Stephen Meader  (Medical Research Council, UK)

E-mail: jpndworkinggroups(at)headoffice.mrc.ac.uk