Researchers from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland have reportedly discovered a serum biochemical signature which predicts progression to Alzheimer’s disease before the first symptoms of the disease occur. VTT and GE Healthcare have formed a collaboration to validate this biomarker in a large patient cohort as well as to discover novel biomarker candidates.

In 2010, GE entered into “biosignatures initiative” alliance with Janssen Pharmaceutica to develop diagnostic biosignatures for pre-symptomatic identification of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As part of this program, VTT will apply serum metabolite profiling to validate their biochemical signature, as well as seek to discover novel biomarker candidates predictive of progression to AD, according to a joint news release.