You met with Bill Gates yesterday in Brussels. Why did he want to meet you there?

Already five years ago, Gill Gates understood the importance of developing cost-effective and scalable tools for diagnostics and prognostics of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2018 we met in Berlin, and I gave him an overview of the status of blood-based biomarkers. In those days, I was cautious but still optimistic. Since then, Gates Ventures has supported many projects in this area of research globally.

This week we met in Brussels for an update on blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.

What did you tell him?

I told him about the fantastic development of especially blood phospho-tau assays for Alzheimer’s disease. These very time- and cost-effective blood biomarkers show an incredible clinical performance and will likely revolutionize the diagnostic work-up of patients with cognitive symptoms in the near future.

So, what next? How did Bill Gates react to this?

He was very pleased and happy with the great progress that has been made. He will continue to support projects in this area of research through Gates Ventures and Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.