EDoN Initiative Launched
With a wealth of digital data at our fingertips, now is the time to transform the early detection of the diseases that cause dementia.
The initiative
Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) is an ambitious project spearheaded by Alzheimer’s Research UK to develop innovative ways to pick up diseases like Alzheimer’s in the brain years before the symptoms of dementia start. Website: edon-initiative.org
The opportunity
Every hour of every day, our brains are generating signals. Patterns of data about how we move, sleep and interact that could provide vital clues to the earliest changes in diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Today the diseases that cause dementia are diagnosed when symptoms like memory loss start. To have the best chance of halting them, we need to intervene decades earlier, when these diseases first start to take hold.
What does EDoN do?
EDoN brings together global experts in data science, digital technology and neurodegeneration to collect and decode huge amounts of digital health data generously donated by people like you.
We aim to develop digital data fingerprints that pick up the earliest changes in the brain in diseases like Alzheimer’s and can be built into wearable technologies like watches or headbands.
These fingerprints could transform research efforts today, helping scientists make faster breakthroughs in understanding the disease and testing potential new preventions and treatments.
What’s our involvement?
Professor David Llewellyn sits on the EDoN Steering Group and leads the Clinical Advisory Group with Zuzana Walker from UCL. The EDoN Initiative is also supported by Dr Charlotte James and Janice Ranson from the DEMON Network.