Peripheral Biomarker Based Combinatorial Early Diagnostics for Dementia

The project, referred to as CombiDiag and valued at more than £2.3m, includes Dr Nigel Wadeson and Dr Fangya Xu alongside Professor Liu. The funder is UKRI. The University of Rostock are the leads on the project, with the University of Reading a Business and Economics Partner, and a total of nine academic and eight non-academic institutions across Europe, the USA, Canada and China are collaborating.

The project was divided into six key areas known as 'Work Packages'. Professor Liu's team were assigned Work Package Three and tasked with building a doctoral network for an integrated study of minimally invasive and cost-effective peripheral 'biomarkers' (defined as the characteristic medical signs of an individual that can be accurately measured and observed).

CombiDiag's goal is to deliver 10 highly skilled, creative and entrepreneurial early-stage researchers, setting them on a path to successful careers in academia or industry to ensure that the medical and societal challenges imposed by Alzheimer's disease are met. Professor Liu's team have focused on developing an innovative business model and utilising exploitation strategies and clinical applications to maximise the societal and economic impact of the artificial intelligence/data-driven point of care biomarker detection techniques used by CombiDiag. The project has been recognised by Horizon Europe, a branch of the European Commission's European Research Executive Agency, and presented with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Award.