In 2016, EPAD began a longitudinal cohort study that screened more than 2,000 participants to collect a wide range of cognitive, clinical, neuroimaging and biomarker data to help further our understanding of the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The current EPAD database, provided by Aridhia, is open-access, ensuring the use of the data for the Alzheimer’s disease research community worldwide. Data access is free to all researchers.
Three databases have been released:
- EPAD LCS V500.0, which includes data from the first 500 people to enter the cohort;
- EPAD LCS V1500.0, which includes data from the first 1,500 people to enter the cohort; and
- EPAD LCS V500.1, which includes updated data from the first 500 participants, including one-year follow-up data.
A fourth dataset yet to be released includes all complete data up to the date the study was halted due to Covid-19 and the subsequent end of the IMI grant. The database contains cognitive (e.g. RBANS, MMSE, CDR), clinical (e.g. medical history, medications), biomarker (APOE, [CSF] Aβ42, tau), and neuroimaging and lifestyle risk factor (sleep, diet, traumatic life events) data sets reflecting participants with a range of disease severities from normal aging to prodromal Alzheimer’s dementia.
New data collection from emerging national studies will be incorporated into the AD Workbench of the AD Data Initiative to provide even greater value to the global neuroscience research community.