Alzheimer's and biomarkers are again in the news with an item coming out of the University of Kentucky, whose researchers are working on a potential diagnostic test for Alzheimer's based on biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid.
University researchers are backed by a $435,600 grant from Scout Diagnostics, a company targeting early Alzheimer's diagnosis. University of Kentucky professors Mark Lovell and Bert Lynn, who also helped found Scout, have been working for some time with biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, according to a news release, and have identified specific markers for Alzheimer's in cerebrospinal fluid. The goal is to use spinal fluid samples to detect Alzheimer's early, before cognitive impairment is apparent.
"We were very pleased to hear of this award for the cutting-edge research that Dr. Lovell and his team at Scout Diagnostics are doing. A reliable biomarker for Alzheimer's disease is desperately needed to identify individuals very early in the disease process, so that therapeutic interventions can begin when they may be most effective, before memory problems develop," said Linda Van Eldik, director of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, in a statement.
According to Scout Diagnostics, the company is focusing on not one single protein in cerebral spinal fluid, but the way they were interact with one another, as possible Alzheimer's biomarkers.
- read the release from the University of Kentucky
- and more on the technology from Scout Diagnostics