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INMiND: Imaging of Neuroinflammation in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neuroscience Campus programme leader Adriaan Lammertsma and colleague Bert Windhorst (VUmc) participate in European project on Neuroinflammation in Neurodegenerative diseases.
Lammertsma and Windhorst participate in FP7 Collaborative Large-scale Integrating Project starting 1 March, 2012
Recently, the European Commission gave green light for the INMiND project to start on March 1, 2012. The Project aims to elucidate the role of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative diseases through an imaging approach. The consortium consists of 21 academic partners and 6 partners from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 13 countries, and is coordinated by Prof. Andreas Jacobs from the European Institute for Molecular Imaging (EIMI) at the University of Münster. From the Netherlands the VU University Medical Center (departments of Nuclear Medicine & PET Research and Neurology & Alzheimer Center) takes part, together with the Cyclotron VrijeUniversiteit BV. The work is truly translational in nature, as it is divided into 9 main scientific workpackages ranging from target identification to clinical imaging studies. The department of Nuclear Medicine & PET Research provides two workpackage leaders. Dr. Bert Windhorst leads “Synthesis of probes for detection ofNIND by PET and SPECT” and Prof. Adriaan Lammertsma takes on “Quantification of imaging biomarkers”.
As stated in the application, the general objectives of INMiND are:
(i) to identify novel mechanisms of regulation and function of microglia under various conditions (inflammatory stimuli; neurodegenerative and -regenerative model systems);
(ii) to identify and implement new targets for activated microglia, which may serve for diagnostic (imaging) and therapeutic purposes;
(iii) to design new molecular probes (tracers) for these novel targets and to implement and validate them in in vivo model systems and patients;
(iv) to image and quantify modulated microglia activity in patients undergoing immune therapy for cognitive impairment and relate findings to clinical outcome.
The INMiND consortium will, across Europe, coordinate research and training activities related to neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration/-regeneration and imaging with special emphasis on translating basic mechanisms into clinical applications that will provide health benefits for our aging population. With its intellectual excellence and its crucial mass the INMiND consortium will play a major role in the European Research Area and will gain European leadership in the creation of new image-guided therapy paradigms in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
Further information on this exciting project can be found at www.uni-muenster.de/InMind.
