On 29-31st October, Alzheimer Europe held the 28th Alzheimer Europe Conference “Making dementia a European priority” in Barcelona (Spain). This year, the event gathered more than 800 participants from 46 countries including 35 people with dementia. The programme included 239 oral presentations and 175 poster presentations.
We were glad to see our epadista Jose Luis Molinuevo (BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center) giving the keynote presentation “Will we be able to prevent Alzheimer’s disease?”. He gave an overview of the challenges and opportunities regarding the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. He expressed the rationale behind preventing Alzheimer’s disease and the reason why prevention may be a key way forward to tackle it. He also mentioned EPAD as a European initiative aiming to streamline the testing and development of preventative treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.
The second plenary session on “Dementia as a human rights priority” included the second of four “Meet the researchers of tomorrow” sessions. Our EPAD fellow Stina Saunders from the University of Edinburgh gave an impressive talk on the engagement of the research participants as collaborators within the EPAD project. She highlighted that the EPAD study has set up the EPAD Participant Panel in order to learn from the experience of research participants, provide participants an on-going active voice in the project and incorporate participants’ input.
Isadora Lopes Alves from VU university medical center, another EPAD fellow, gave the fourth and final “Meet the researchers of tomorrow” session within the last plenary session focused on “Dementia as a research priority”. She presented the AMYPAD project, its aims, methods and latest progress.
In addition, Alzheimer Europe launched its new Dementia in Europe magazine during its 28th Alzheimer Europe Conference. This 28th edition of the magazine features an EPAD article underlining the global efforts and cooperation between the participating members and partners. The article reports our significant progress including the launch of the proof-of-concept platform, the EPAD research participant panel, the EPAD Academy as well as our active presence at international conferences.
If you are curious, you can download the presentations below:
- José Luis Molinuevo “The challenge of preventing Alzheimer’s disease: the BBRC experience“
- Stina Saunders “Involving research participants in research: The example of the EPAD project“
- Isadora Lopes Alves “ß-amyloid PET imaging: improving understanding, diagnosis and management of Alzheimer’s disease“
Mark the dates of the next Alzheimer Europe Conference in your calendar. “Making valuable connections” will take place in The Hague (Den Haag) from 23 to 25 October 2019.