Alfa study
MORET HAN 2.700 PARTICIPANTS PREPARED TO CHANGE ALZHEIMER’S HISTORY
We know that the damage that Alzheimer’s disease causes in the brain may have started silently up to 20 years before the first symptoms are revealed. We need to anticipate it, to study what happened in the brain years before the appearence of Alzheimer’s disease. Our aim is to act before it is too late and the damage is irreversible.
“Research is one of our institution's priorities, to which we devote a large number of resources, but the volunteers and carergivers of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease are the true heroes of this adventure"
Jaume Lanaspa
Patron of the “La Caixa” Foundation
The Alfa Study in figures
A part of the study a series of tests are performed on descendants of patients with Alzheimer’s disease who are given a set of tests every three years for a long period lasting decades, to see the risk factors and the biological indicators which might point to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
2,743
Volunteer descendants of people with Alzheimer’s disease
50
Professionals
9,891
Visiting-hours
10,892
Samples in the biobank
78,963
Cognitive tests
421
MRI scans
THE VOLUNTEERS, THE SOUL OF THE ALFA STUDY
“I will do what is necessary to help in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. I want to prevent my children from enduring the same fate”
Cristina
Alfa Study Volunteer
“I want to help the research. For 10 years, I lived through my mother's disease and I want to do something”
Maria Antonia
Alfa Study Volunteer
Barcelonaßeta Brain Reserach Center SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Frederik Barkhof, MD, PhD
VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands / UCL institutes of Biomedical Engineering and Neurology, London, UK
Kaj Blennow, MD, PhD
Dept. of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Gothenburg, Sweden / Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
Bruno Dubois, MD, PhD
University Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France / University Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris, France
Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
John C. Morris, MD
Harvey A and Dorismae Hacker Friedman, Washington, USA / Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, USA
Reisa A. Sperling
Center for Alzheimer's Research and Treatment / Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center / Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
