A Nottingham scientist has secured funding to bring a new technology to fruition that will identify early brain changes of Alzheimer's disease, leading to earlier targeted treatments and prevent treatment progression.
Professor Stamatios Sotiropoulos from the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine has secured a 2026 Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This is one of the 182 Proof of Concept Grants across all disciplines in Europe and will give scientists the chance to explore the commercial or societal potential of their research fundings.
The new projects will delve into a diverse range of topics and will explore how frontier research can be translated into practical applications.
Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), pose a major global health and economic challenge, with over 10 million new cases annually and costs exceeding $1.3 trillion. As the first AD modifying therapies emerge, their effectiveness depends on identifying the right patients at the appropriate stage.
However, current diagnostic and clinical trial-support tools, such as PET scans and lumbar punctures, are costly, poorly scalable and have safety risks. This impairs patient stratification and trial efficiency, and delays diagnosis until significant neuronal loss has occurred, limiting treatment impact.
The team at Nottingham are developing a quantitative toolkit to enable early detection of AD-related brain changes, before irreversible clinical symptoms develop, allowing timely interventions that prevent disease progression.
Their platform transforms routine, widely accessible Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans into personalised, population-referenced markers of brain health, building on over a decade of research in advanced brain MRI analytics.
Using AI-driven normative models, their approach supports better patient stratification, including selection of individuals likely to respond to therapy, so improving clinical trial outcomes, and enabling early diagnosis.
Professor of Computational Neuroimaging, Stamatios Sotiropoulos, said: "I am glad for this ERC Proof of Concept grant, which will allow us to explore commercialisation opportunities for our quantitative neuroimaging technologies, developed throughout the years with the support of the ERC."
In this project, we will explore efficacy of MRI for quantitatively characterising whole-brain changes caused by early neurodegenerative disease. We will leverage the power of modern AI architectures to learn from population-level MRI scans what are the typical ranges for healthy brain features. We will then apply these normative ranges to detect early pathology-induced abnormalities in scans of patients. The aim is to do so at early phases of mild cognitive decline and before irreversible symptoms develop, allowing timely interventions for dementia. We are fortunate to have clinical partners from the NUH NHS trust and pharmaceutical industry partners, who will feedback in validations and translations."
Dr Shaun Warrington, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Co-Investigator, said: "It's fantastic to see this ERC Proof of Concept grant funded. It is a great opportunity to move advanced MRI methods closer to clinical and trial use, enabling detection of meaningful brain changes early enough for intervention to make the greatest difference."
Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said: "Many of today's innovations begin with a researcher asking a fundamental question. These 182 projects show that curiosity-driven science and real-world impact go hand in hand. With Proof of Concept funding, ERC researchers can test how their discoveries could become new treatments, technologies, services or solutions that benefit people across Europe."
