Welcome
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I hope that all of you are safe and healthy in these challenging COVID-19 times. In much the same way as COVID-19 affects our daily lives it also affects EPAD. Most, if not all EPAD research and clinical trial activities had to stop as of early March as progressively Universities across Europe closed, and our clinical sites were either closed or saw site staff redeployed to help fight this pandemic. As previously announced, the annual EPAD General Assembly meeting, which was supposed to take place later this month in Edinburgh, has been cancelled. All this happening at a time when we were preparing EPAD for the post-IMI period, with final reporting and executing on our sustainability plans in full swing. Because of this, Craig and I have engaged IMI to explore the possibility to extend the EPAD project beyond its current end date of 30 June 2020 with 4 months until 31 October 2020. We will keep you abreast of our progress on this front.
Fortunately, all is not gloom and doom. Firstly, two EPAD fellows, Lucy Stirland and Lisa Vermunt, recently earned their PhD – CONGRATULATIONS to both. You can read more about their EPAD journey and their exciting work in this newsletter. Secondly, we are progressing the EPAD 5-component sustainability model that was introduced in the November 2019 newsletter. Unfortunately, also here COVID-19 is causing some delays and set-backs, but the EPAD change management team remains fully engaged in their commitment to execute on our sustainability plans. Although we have been unsuccessful at this time to secure funding that would allow continuation of the EPAD Longitudinal Cohort Study (LCS) as a pan-European cohort, under Craig’s leadership, efforts are underway to redesign the LCS so it can continue at a regional and/or country level. In addition, negotiations are progressing to assure the existing LCS database and data sharing capabilities as well as EPAD’s one of a kind bioresource are maintained and remain accessible for future research. Also at the level of the site network exciting things are happening with EPAD and GAP deciding to join efforts and create a transatlantic site network that will be able to run all manner of clinical trials aimed at finding treatments as well as alleviating symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Although also here COVID-19 is causing some delays, we are hopeful that the first of such trials might still be able to start late 2020 or early 2021.
At some point in the hopefully not too distant future COVID-19 will be defeated and we will be able to return to our normal lives. As soon as that happens, we want to make sure EPAD is prepared to pick up where we left it in early March and continue our fight to find a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Despite how horrible COVID-19 is, it will pass, while Alzheimer’s disease will still affect millions of lives worldwide. Circumstances may have forced us to hit the pause button in our fight against Alzheimer’s disease just now but our commitment to patients everywhere stays as strong as ever. In the meantime, stay healthy and stay safe.
This electronic newsletter will be published quarterly and be accessible via the EPAD website (https://alzheimer.noemi.lu/) and inform the Alzheimer’s community on EPAD’s main achievements, upcoming events as well as allow you to meet the scientists who make it all happen.
We hope you enjoy this issue of the EPAD newsletter! Happy Reading!
Serge Van Der Geyten
EPAD Coordinator
