The BF-PilotAD cohort, which features in our Cohort Catalogue, is part of the prospective, longitudinal BioFINDER study, which has been investigating the key mechanisms underpinning Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease over the last decade. In this Cohort Profile, the Principal Investigator of BioFINDER, Oskar Hansson (Professor of Neurology at Lund University in Sweden) explains the goals, design and outcomes of PilotAD.

What are the goals of the BF-PilotAD study?

The goal of BF-PilotAD is to facilitate the discovery and early validation of novel blood and CSF biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.

What disease areas and stages are included, and how many participants are involved?

We have included approximately 50 cognitively healthy controls and 50 patients with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (prodromal AD and mild AD dementia).

What types of data and samples are being collected, and which partner institutions/sites are involved? 

We have collected plasma, serum and cerebrospinal fluid samples at the Memory Clinic at Skåne University Hospital, Sweden.

What are some of your recent research findings from the BF-PilotAD study? 

We are currently evaluating several new types of plasma tau markers and comparing them to the already established markers when it comes to their ability to distinguish between controls and Alzheimer’s disease, but also have well they can predict the outcomes of amyloid- and tau-PET imaging.

How could you see the Cohort Catalogue being useful for your research?

It will speed up the validation of novel promising biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. BF-PilotAD samples will be accessible for projects that will publish the results to make sure that the findings get accessible to the whole research community within a reasonable time.

Interested in accessing data or samples from BF-PilotAD? Use the "contact cohort" feature in the Catalogue to connect with the team.