FOUNDED BY REGIONE TOSCANA – BANDO RICERCA SALUTE 2018

PI of the DBSC unit: Prof. Fabrizio Chiti

Other investigators in DBSC: Alessandra Bigi, Lorenzo Neri

In the PRAMA project we intend to build up a strategy for personalized prediction of
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on the hypothesis that the AD precursor beta-amyloid
(Aβ) peptide can form specific aggregates responsible for distinct clinical pictures of the
disease, with consequent differential sensitivity to drugs among patients. In detail, a
combined biochemical, biophysical and optical spectroscopy characterization of molecular
biomarkers found in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 100 individuals including patients with
progressive clinical signs of AD will be carried out. These data will provide information on
biomarker composition, structure, aggregation level and toxicity and will constitute the
proteomic profile of the biomarker content of each individual. The same patients will be
subjected to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) followed by multiple features radiomic
image analysis. The entire set of biochemical, optical, MRI data, including clinical
parameters and neuropsychological evaluation of patients will be elaborated through Big
Data analytics techniques to discover correlations among novel and gold-standard
biomarkers, and then to mine and identify different AD phenotypes. The newest Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning techniques will be employed to model the complex
high-dimensional data gathered in PRAMA. Data analyses will also aim at discovering
specific diagnostic, prognostic or predictive responses of the different disease stages and
on a personalized basis. Overall, the PRAMA project represents a perspective of high
human and socio-economic impact, with significant advantages including reducing
healthcare costs and improving the well-being of the world population in the immediate
future.