Développement de stratégies innovantes pour une approche transdisciplinaire de la maladie d'Alzheime

In 2022, the research activities of the 8 DISTALZ teams have been very active with several major papers published. Based upon the EADB project involving 18 European countries, UMR1167 team 3 published a meta-analysis of GWAS (111 326 AD cases and proxy-ADD vs 677 663 controls) in Nat Genet that doubled the number of loci associated with AD risk, offering new insights into the pathophysiological processes. UMR1172 team 2 demonstrated in Science that in addition to controlling reproduction, the neurons in the brain that produce GnRH are also involved in the control of postnatal brain maturation, odor discrimination, and adult cognition. They showed that restoring physiological, i.e. pulsatile, GnRH levels rescues olfactory and cognitive alterations in adults with Down syndrome and preclinical models of Alzheimer’s disease. Distalz s organised the 2nd international conference of the International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias (ISFTD) in Lille, (3-5 November 2022). The program has the particularity of simultaneously addressing clinicians and basic researchers. In addition, one day was dedicated to patients, families and professional and family carers, supported by associations for the general public.The congress brought together more than 870 participants from 39 countries. The Tau Immune project was bioincubated at Eurasanté (Lille) in order to strengthen the start-up prospects based on our specific anti-Tau nanobodies. The number of new clinical studies in which we participated, increased significantly in 2022 with 6 trial promoted by industry. The merging of the I-site foundation with EPE (Experimental Public Establishment) in June 2022 had several implication on the fundings of the labex. Indeed, our funds were limited to 16% of the budget until the end of October, due to delay in the reorganisation of the financial department of the EPE and obliged us to modify totally our budgets for 2022, cutting down in several investments, recruitments.