Washington D.C. (July 30, 2020) – The President of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP), John Dwyer, issued the following statement regarding recent groundbreaking advances in Alzheimer’s blood test research:
“I want to congratulate and thank Dr. Barthélemy, Dr. Horie, Dr. Sato, Dr. Bateman, Dr. Palmqvist, Dr. Janelidze, and Dr. Quiroz on their published research on two profound breakthroughs regarding Alzheimer’s blood biomarkers this week. These seminal research papers showed that select blood biomarkers can serve as early indicators of the presence of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Blood tests are generally available clinical tools and their use is well understood by patients, physicians, and researchers. The biomarker research announced this week will catalyze the development of “first of their kind” tests that will allow patients and physicians to detect and diagnosis Alzheimer’s disease as well as accelerate clinical trial research targeting treatments and cures for this terrible disease.
While more research may be needed to optimize these biomarkers, GAP encourages the research field to expedite this work and prioritize their appropriate introduction into clinical practice and clinical trial research. As we move forward in implementing these biomarkers, it is essential we understand their performance in indicating the presence of Alzheimer’s disease in Black and Latinx populations. GAP looks forward to contributing to the optimization and implementation of these advancements in our GAP enabled clinical trials.”