Nico Franzmeier

A systematic comparison of ATN biomarkers for monitoring longitudinal cognitive changes in Alzheimer's disease INTRODUCTION With anti-amyloid beta (Aβ) therapies approved for Alzheimer's disease (AD), surrogate biomarkers are needed to monitor clinical treatment efficacy. Therefore, we systematically compare.....

New paper out!
We systematically compared how ATN biomarker changes track cognitive decline in AD:
Tau-PET, plasma ptau217 & cortical thickness changes track cognition, amyloid-PET does not.
Ptau217 = cost-effective proxy for monitoring cognitive changes in AD

doi.org/10.1002/alz....

I'm thrilled that our paper "Personalised regional modelling predicts tau progression in the human brain" is finally published in PLoS Biology!

Here's a short thread about the main findings of the paper...

🚨Postdoc position open at @BarcelonaBeta🚨
We're looking someone to work on a project at the intersection of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative research 🫀🧠
Fully funded position!!!
More details: www.imim.cat/media/upload...
Please share!
#Alzheimer's #ENDALZ

GitHub - poldrack/academicdb: Project to maintain a database for CV/website rendering Project to maintain a database for CV/website rendering - poldrack/academicdb

I have just dropped a new version of my academicdb project, which helps prolific researchers generate a CV automatically. Now with a web interface! If you are interested, please try it out and let me know what you think - it takes a bit of setup work but then runs easily using Docker.

Out now in Brain: Our new study shows that tau deposits in Alzheimer’s disease not affect gray matter but also drive degeneration of connected white matter tracts, offering mechanistic insight into how tau disrupts brain networks
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

🔥Recent advances in #neuroimaging of #Alzheimers disease 🧠✨

dx.doi.org/10.1002/alz....

➡️ Valuable resource for both researchers & clinicians!
➡️ ATNIV biomarkers, staging, connectomics & more
➡️ Plus: how are sex & country represented in first/last authorship?

@istaart.bsky.social Neuroimaging PIA

Brain Networks Route Neurodegeneration Patterns in Patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Background Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a neurodegenerative disease driven by 4-repeat τ pathology, which is thought to propagate across interconnected neurons. Objectives We hypothesiz...

Working Link:
movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Many thanks to co-senior author @matthiasbrendel.bsky.social as well as Günter Höglinger, Johannes Gnörich @sebroemer.bsky.social, Carla Palleis, Anna Dewenter, Anna Steward, Davina Biel, @johanneslevin.bsky.social and many others

The study was motivated by cerebellar 4R tau in PSP potentially confounding conventional cerebellar tau-PET reference regions. Using a data driven approach, we identified temporo-orbital white matter as a suitable reference that may support the biomarker workup in 4R tauopathies

Very happy to share our 2nd paper today, led by Lukas Frontzkowski: We developed a novel data driven reference region for PI-2620 PET tailored to assess 4R tauopathies, improving i) PSP vs. control separation and ii) PET associations with clinical scores
doi.org/10.1007/s002...

Many thanks to co-senior author Günter Höglinger, @matthiasbrendel.bsky.social, @johanneslevin.bsky.social, @sebroemer.bsky.social, Johannes Gnörich, @mauramalpetti.bsky.social and many others!

Happy to share our new work by Carla Palleis in Movement Disorders showing that brain networks shape neurodegeneration patterns in PSP
=> This suggests that grey matter atrophy expands across connected brain regions, potentially following tau accumulation in PSP

doi.org/10.1002/mds....

Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2025 Clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease (AD) must be registered on clinicaltrials.gov. The registry presents a variety of types of information related to the planned clinical trial. We assess clinic...

Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline: 2025 - Cummings - 2025 - Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions - Wiley Online Library alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A chart showing cancelled NIH grants

“I would like to cure brain cancer. I think that's not particularly controversial.” Be that as it may, the NIH terminated that scientist's grant. Here's a huge survey of the 2,500 grants that NIH has killed or delayed...so far. Gift link: nyti.ms/43Jz1yJ

Astrocyte induction of disease-associated microglia is suppressed by acute exposure to fAD neurons in human iPSC triple cultures Lish et al. present a co-culture system of iPSC-derived human microglia, astrocytes, and neurons to investigate intercellular communication across different environmental and genetic contexts. Transcr...

This is a well done study! congrats www.cell.com/cell-reports...

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

Hiring! We're looking for a postdoc to join my lab at the @ukdri.ac.uk @ucl.ac.uk We’re investigating neuronal and circuit dysfunction in Alzheimer's, and developing innovative new treatments.

Apply here👇
shorturl.at/LpCAq

Alzheimer’s disease patient-derived high-molecular-weight tau impairs bursting in hippocampal neurons In mouse models, tau impairs neuronal complex spike bursting and associated network processes in hippocampus CA1 alongside CaV2.3 downregulation. Soluble high-molecular-weight tau species drive these ...

Our latest work, published in @cellpress.bsky.social, identifies a rare soluble #tau species in human #Alzheimer’s brain that suppresses CA1 complex-spike bursting, a hippocampal neuronal firing pattern that is critical for learning and memory.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Super excited to announce a PhD position on polypathology in the medial temporal lobe at the Paris Brain Institute together with @nvillain-alz.bsky.social and @robindeflores.bsky.social!

offres.institutducerveau-icm.org/fr/jobs/1935...

Please repost!

BIN1 and Alzheimer’s disease: the tau connection Bridging integrator 1 (BIN1) is a ubiquitously expressed protein that plays a critical role in endocytosis, trafficking and cytoskeletal dynamics. In …

When I was a student, I dreamed of one day publishing in Trends In Neurosciences. So I'm proud that we had the opportunity to write an invited review on BIN1, a major genetic determinant of Alzheimer's disease that we've been working on for over 10 years.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Just out in JAMA Neurol blood biomarkers are powerful—but without cognitive phenotyping, we risk more noise than signal.
Plasma p-tau217 needs clinical context or we’ll end up in a false-positive factory!
Clinico-biological AD is a reality!
👉🏻 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

bsky.app/profile/vinc...

The Fredericks Lab! - with deliberately poor photoshopping of lab members who couldn't be there that day.

We are HIRING!! Postdoc for multimodal imaging lab at Yale. If you get excited about preclinical and prodromal states, atypical Alzheimer’s, graph theory, predictive modeling, and/or baked goods at lab meetings, come join us: postdocs.yale.edu/postdoctoral...

Please share with your circles!

Exploring the origins of frequent tau-PET signal in vermal and adjacent regions - European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Purpose Off-target binding remains a significant challenge in tau-PET neuroimaging. While off-targets including monoamine oxidase enzymes and neuromelanin-containing cells have been identified, recent...

Also out today in EJNMMI, led by @matthiasbrendel.bsky.social and Johannes Gnörich:

Ever wondered about the strong PI-2620 tau-PET signal in the vermis and superior cerebellum? We found that this signal is driven by leptomeningeal melanozytes rather than tau deposits.

doi.org/10.1007/s002...

Many thanks to @sebroemer.bsky.social, @matthiasbrendel.bsky.social, @johanneslevin.bsky.social, Günter Höglinger and many more

Alpha synuclein co-pathology is associated with accelerated amyloid-driven tau accumulation in Alzheimer’s disease - Molecular Neurodegeneration Background Aggregated alpha-Synuclein (αSyn) is a hallmark pathology in Parkinson’s disease but also one of the most common co-pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Preclinical studies suggest that...

Excited to share our new work in Molecular Neurodegeneration, showing that α-synuclein co-pathology is common in Alzheimer’s and accelerates amyloid-related tau accumulation, supporting its role as a tau co-aggregation factor.

doi.org/10.1186/s130...

High resolution autoradiography of [18F]MK-6240 and [18F]Flortaucipir shows similar neurofibrillary tangle binding patterns preferentially recognizing middling neurofibrillary tangle maturity - Acta N... Recent developments in tau positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers have enhanced the visualization of tau aggregates in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The maturity level of neurofibrillary tangles ...

Great working with Sujala Ghatamaneni, Val Lowe, and colleagues on this high resolution autoradiography study of MK-6240 and flortaucipir🧠🖥️
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

@drchristinamoloney.bsky.social @davidjonesbrain.bsky.social

The research group of Prof. Dr. Dominik Paquet (https://www.isd-research.de/paquetlab) is looking for a Postdoc. Our research involves the development of human brain tissue models to study the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease, Frontotemporal dementia, stroke and other related brain diseases and to develop therapeutic approaches. We use state-of-the-art molecular and cell biological methods, such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), advanced molecular biology techniques, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, brain tissue engineering, scRNAseq, proteomics etc. We offer a highly international, versatile, extremely well equipped and productive work environment. We have received funding by an international research organization for a very interdisciplinary and collaborative project to develop a human iPSC model of the blood brain barrier and apply it to study neurovascular diseases, with a focus on Small vessel disease (SVD). The project will focus on CRISPR genome engineering of SVD-relevant mutations, differentiation of iPSCs into neurovascular cells, microfluidic 3D vascular tissue engineering, and identifying disease-relevant alterations by microscopy and omics techniques. It will be embedded in the highly collaborative and stimulating environment of the PaquetLab, ISD, SyNergy Cluster of Excellence, and our international collaboration network. We are looking for a highly motivated individual with the following skills: -extensive international scientific working experience in vascular biology or a closely related research field (required) -experience in molecular biology, biochemistry and/or omics techniques; cell culture experience is a plus -excellent English skills in speaking, writing about and presenting scientific data -interest in working in collaborative network of friendly scientists around the world A start date soon in 2025 is desired. Join us! dominik.paquet@med.uni-muenchen.de www.isd-research.de/paquetlab www.brenda-leducq.de

Open #Postdoc position @isd-research.bsky.social @lmumuenchen.bsky.social to develop an #iPSC-derived #BBB model. Fully funded and embedded in our international Foundation Leducq Network of Excellence www.brenda-leducq.de Experience in vascular biology or related field required. Please RP and apply

Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness
academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

www2.daad.de/deutschland/...

Zelensky is a wartime leader watching his people suffer and die under Russian attacks every day. To be lectured and lied to by Trump and Vance, as they defend the war criminal dictator committing these atrocities, is unimaginable agony. An everlasting shame for America.

We did it and now it is published: A highly Lewy-fold selective and quantitative Synuclein Aggregate Amplification Assay (SAA). Huge thanks to the amazing teams at MODAG GmbH, LMU Munich, and Bologna University!
rdcu.be/eaISM