The progressive neurodegenerative disease affects more than 55 million people globally

Innovate UK has awarded £4m through its Contracts for Innovation to four UK companies for research into dementia diagnosis.

As part of the Bio-Hermes-002 study led by the US-based Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP) in partnership with Novo Nordisk, the organisations will evaluate blood-based and digital innovative biomarkers for the neurological condition.

Affecting more than 55 million people globally, which is expected to triple by 2050, dementia is a neurodegenerative condition that affects the ability to remember, think or make decisions in everyday life.

The study aims to explore whether these biomarkers can predict the extent of tau and amyloid brain pathology and potentially provide more efficient and less invasive alternatives to the current gold standard for dementia diagnoses: positron emission tomography brain imaging.

The project will involve 1,000 participants who are cognitively normal, have mild cognitive impairment or have mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD), from across 30 sites in the UK, US, Europe and Canada.

Nadeem Sarwar, head, Transformational Prevention Unit, Novo Nordisk, said that the project will help “to accelerate and reduce to practice the translation of breakthroughs in cutting-edge biomarker sciences” to predict, diagnose and stratify the disease “better and faster”.

The four winners are: Cambridge Cognition, to provide tools to measure digital biomarkers through touch screen and voice assessments on an iPad; Ainostics, which will provide its software to become a routine part of clinical practice and drug development; the Intelligent Lab on Fiber, which will utilise photonics and artificial intelligence to analyse blood-based biomarkers non-invasively; and Cumulus Neuroscience, to collect longitudinal, objective real-world data in clinical studies.

Dr Stella Peace, executive director, healthy living and agriculture domain, Innovate UK, said: “We’re pleased to enable four UK small and medium-sized enterprises to join this groundbreaking dementia study.”

“We are confident that the winners… will make a major contribution to this endeavour and advance our ability to better diagnose and treat AD for patients around the world,” added John Dwyer, president, GAP Foundation.