MultiPark is a strategic research area at Lund University. Here, experimental and clinical researchers work side by side to better understand neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, an approach that has contributed to several research breakthroughs.
Around half of all dementia cases may be linked to modifiable factors. In one study, Sebastian Palmqvist and Isabelle Glans show how different risk factors affect brain changes associated with the two most common forms of dementia: Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. They found that modifiable risk factors – such as high blood pressure and blood lipids – primarily predicted vascular damage in the brain rather than the accumulation of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Nevertheless, they emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle also in Alzheimer’s disease:
Targeting vascular and metabolic risk factors may still help reduce the synergistic effects of co-existing neuropathologies," explains Sebastian Palmqvist.
Read more about their findings here.
Further, the largest ever Tau-PET study showed that nonmodifiable factors – such as age, sex and genetic risk – influence when Alzheimer’s-related changes emerge in the brain.
Read more about the study here.
The risk of Alzheimer’s disease also increases markedly after brain trauma and repeated concussions, which can affect young people as well. Niklas Marklund and Tadeusz Wieloch recently received a major grant to map how such injuries accelerate molecular processes that can lead to dementia. In an ongoing study, patients with traumatic brain injury are followed to see how the inflammatory response and changes in the brain develop over time, using blood samples and high-resolution MRI. The researchers are also testing whether an anti-inflammatory treatment can reduce the accumulation of the Alzheimer’s-related protein tau after brain trauma in animal models.
Brain trauma gives us a unique opportunity to understand how neurodegenerative diseases develop because the starting point of the injury in the brain is known,” says Niklas Marklund, summarizing the project.
Read more about the ongoing project here.
For people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, an accurate diagnosis is crucial for receiving the right care and support. Previously, diagnosing the disease has been costly for healthcare, time-consuming and not particularly accurate. A new method developed by the BioFINDER group, part of MultiPark, makes it possible to reach the correct diagnosis at an earlier stage – something that is becoming even more important as disease-modifying treatments are now available.
The next step is to investigate whether the test can be simplified, and whether it can be used more widely, in primary care, for example,” says Niklas Mattsson-Carlgren, who leads the project.
Read more about the method here.
The approach of combining measurements of two blood biomarkers was published in Nature Medicine, and Professor Oskar Hansson and Associate Researcher Gemma Salvadó were awarded the 2026 Jeffrey L. Morby Prize for the study.
Read more about the prize here.
Alzheimer’s disease is far from the only disease that causes dementia, and the same patient often has several overlapping disease processes in the brain. Unfortunately, the lack of biomarkers for other dementia types makes it difficult to get a comprehensive picture. But recently, Jacob Vogel and Lijun An developed an AI model that uses simultaneous measurements of many different proteins to detect several of these diseases. However, the model needs further refinement before it can become useful in healthcare.
Our hope is to be able to accurately diagnose several diseases at once with a single blood test in the future,” says Jacob Vogel.
Read more about the project here.
For MultiPark, it is important that new knowledge is translated into practical solutions that benefit patients. MultiPark participates in Skånska Demensdagen, a regional dementia conference, to meet professionals working with people with dementia in municipalities and regional healthcare. Several of our researchers have also advocated for the more effective antibody treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, developed internationally, to become available to patients in Swedish healthcare. In addition, MultiPark’s innovation group supports researchers in developing their discoveries into finished products, helping them to reach the market faster.
Read more about MultiPark Innovation here.
Read more about MultiPark researchers’ efforts to make the new Alzheimer’s treatments available here. (In Swedish)