The European Consortium SRA-NED against the “Barriers” in the research on neurodegenerative diseases
- Experts of the European Consortium SRA-NED meet in Genève (2-3rd of March 2017) to Discuss the Results of a Survey on the “Barriers” Preventing the Optimal Use of Neuroimaging (MRI, PET/SPECT, and EEG) biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy response monitoring in patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases
Despite the efforts and success of several important projects, there are still considerable challenges for the fruitful application of biomarkers of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography/single-photon emission computerized tomography (PET/SPECT), and electroencephalography (EEG) in multi-centric studies for improving the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy response monitoring in patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. These challenges clearly have been slowing down the discovery of effective disease-modifying therapies for tens and tens of millions of patients who have no hope of healing today. For this reason, the European Joint Programme for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) has granted the project of the Consortium SRA-NED coordinated by Prof. Giovanni Frisoni (University of Genève, Switzerland). The project aims at developing a survey on the prominent “barriers” preventing the optimal use of those biomarkers in the clinical research on those fatal diseases. The survey was completed by about three-hundred field experts of many countries and international scientific societies.After an intense preparatory work, 25 experts of the Consortium SRA-NED met in Geneva (Switzerland) on 2-3rd of March 2017. During the Workshop, the Working Groups on the MRI, PET/SPECT, and EEG biomarkers led by Prof. Jorge Jovicich (University of Trento, Italy), Karl Herholz (University of Manchester, UK), and Claudio Babiloni (Department “Erspamer”, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) discussed the preliminary results of the survey. These Groups reached a consensus on some recommendations to remove the main “barriers” for the use of neuroimaging biomarkers in the clinical research on neurodegenerative disorders. The general discussion emphasized the “barriers” preventing an international consensus on the clinical research validity of some biomarkers and the related standard operating procedures. Other “barriers” are due to the lack of European central expert services and freeware tools for supporting clinical researchers in the use of those biomarkers. The participants agreed to extend the deadline for the survey to 31tst of March 2017) for the cross-validation of the present results and recommendations. The final results of the survey will be published in an international field journal by 2017.
- More information on this initiative and the Consortium SRA-NED (Strategic Research Agenda for Neurodegenerative Diseases) can be found at http://www.sra-ned.org.
Genève, 3rd of March 2017
