Alfa+ BBRC Cohort: Biomarker Data for Preclinical Alzheimer's Research
The Alfa+ cohort study for Alzheimer's biomarker research is a prospective, observational cohort study by the BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center (BBRC) for the early identification of Alzheimer's disease.
The Alfa+ study follows more than 400 healthy, cognitively unimpaired participants across three timepoints. Alfa+ analyzes the association between fluid, brain, biological, structural, functional, and neurocognitive markers that characterize the preclinical phase of the disease and describe its natural history. Its data now contributes to the Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium (GNPC), a multi-cohort biomarker discovery effort launched in 2023. Find the GNPC Harmonized Dataset V1 in the AD Discovery Portal catalog.
What the Dataset Contains
The dataset contains:
- 443 participants across three assessment timepoints, with 381 participants having complete data through the third timepoint
- More than 400 cognitively unimpaired adults enrolled at baseline
- Clinical and demographic data, APOE genotyping, and proteomics profiling
- Harmonized data structure aligned to the GNPC, enabling comparison across dozens of contributing cohorts
- Developed and maintained by the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC)
What Researchers Can Do With This Dataset
Alfa+ data can be used to advance early Alzheimer's disease biomarker prediction, natural history modeling, and risk stratification in cognitively unimpaired populations. The study's scale, duration, and multimodal data can support researchers studying disease progression before symptom onset
Preclinical Alzheimer's disease is one of the highest-value windows for intervention research.
How to Access The Dataset
The Alfa+ BBRC dataset is available through the AD Discovery Portal and accessible within individually permissioned AD Workbench workspaces at no cost to qualified researchers. AD Workbench provides free compute, virtual machines, and multimodal analysis tools and allows researchers to bring their own code, models, and approved external datasets into their workspace.
The Alfa+ cohort data has been harmonized for inclusion in the GNPC) Harmonized Dataset V1 , an international biomarker discovery effort. Through AD Workbench, researchers can integrate the Alfa+ data alongside a variety of other ADRD data.
About the Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative
The Alzheimer’s Disease Data Initiative (AD Data Initiative) is a global coalition of partners working together to promote and power data sharing and research collaboration to accelerate breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD) research. We're on a mission to transform the field by offering secure data sharing and analytics tools and resources, all available to users at no cost.