From March 5-9, we’ll be in Lisbon for AD/PD 2024, the International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases and related neurological disorders, to highlight our efforts in making AD data findable, usable, and accessible to drive research progress.
Gatherings like this, where scientists, academic and industry experts, and policymakers discuss progress in the field of Alzheimer’s and related dementias are always an opportunity for learning. For us at the AD Data Initiative, they are also an opportunity to show how our coalition of partners are working together to enable advances in AD research and in doing so, promoting even more progress in our field.
Since our founding in 2020, the AD Data Initiative has become a centralized hub for open data and global collaboration with a single mission: to end the disease that devastates the 55 million people living with it, worldwide.
We serve that mission by sharing, requesting, storing, and streamlining findings that can expand our collective knowledge and drive faster developments in AD research. And when new partners join us, they help countless researchers around the world search datasets on existing platforms, add new multi-dimensional datasets, combine data found across multiple platforms, and analyze new and existing datasets to advance research that will generate new therapies.
As we continue to grow our network, we’re incredibly pleased to share that two colleagues have joined our advisory board: Phyllis Ferrell represents the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, which unites organizations in building an innovation ecosystem to accelerate AD breakthroughs; and Ben Rotz joins us from Eli Lilly and Company, where he is Associate Vice President, Global Medical Policy Strategy and Operations.
Only when experts from varied sectors partner to accelerate progress, can we have a better – and faster – chance at new diagnostics, treatments, and cures for AD. It’s why as Interim Executive Director of the AD Data Initiative, my role will be to ensure we continue to work together with all our partners, from industry to academia, so we can break down silos and accelerate progress towards an Alzheimer’s breakthrough.
I look forward to seeing you in Portugal, where we will host a live symposium titled: Bridging a Gap: How several key efforts are making their data and samples accessible to the broader research community, featuring Drs. Miia Kivipelto, Simon Lovestone, Rhoda Au, Jean Manson, Phil Scordis, and Phyllis Barkman Ferrell. I also hope you will stop by our AD Data Initiative booth (Booth #42), featuring data platform partners GAAIN, DPUK, EPND, HDR UK, and Vivli.
If you’ll miss AD/PD this time, I hope we’ll see you at the conference virtually, and later, in the AD Workbench – where you can share data, resources, and tools that will accelerate discoveries in AD research and bring us closer to ending this disease.
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