Prediction of cognitive properties of new drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases in early clinical development

The Pharma-Cog project aims to develop and validate new tools to test candidate drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and its symptoms in a faster and more sensitive way than is currently possible. By bringing together databases of previously conducted clinical trials and combining the results from blood tests, brain scans and behavioural tests, the PharmaCog consortium will develop a 'signature' that gives more accurate information on the progression of the disease and the effect of candidate drugs than current methods do. The scientists will conduct parallel studies in laboratory models, healthy volunteers and patients in order to better predict good new drugs as early as possible.