New program to use blood tests to identify Alzheimer’s risk
On Butler Hospital’s verdant campus, on the mostly affluent East Side of Providence. Founded in 1844, it’s one of the oldest hospitals in America for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological illnesses. It has treated more than a few well-known people.
— Photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel
Edited from a New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com) report
Brown University, in Providence, is partnering with the Memory and Aging Program of Butler Hospital, in Providence, to start a new BioFinder aimed at developing new methods to access risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The study will look at blood tests of individuals between 50 and 80 who are currently healthy but face higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s than the general population. It will include 200 participants overseen by Brown and 400 by Lund University, in Lund, Sweden.
“Developing easy-to-use blood tests will lead to early diagnosis and treatment and be a game-changer in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Stephen Salloway, the principal investigator of the BioFinder-Brown site.