Biomarkers and artificial intelligence open new avenues for anticipating Alzheimer’s progression

Monday, 21 September 2026, Madrid, Spain. – Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for between 60% and 70% of cases. In Spain, the latest estimates from Alzheimer Europe put the number of people living with dementia at 983,920 in 2025, approximately 2.05% of the population. This figure could continue to rise over the coming decades: across the European Union, the more than 9 million people estimated to be living with dementia in 2025 could exceed 14.3 million by 2050.

Against this backdrop, one of the major scientific and clinical challenges is advancing towards earlier detection and characterisation, making it possible to identify people at greater risk of progression and intervene at early stages. The development of new biomarkers and the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence are opening up new opportunities to advance towards more personalised medicine.

For Marta Barrachina, CEO and co-founder of ADmit Therapeutics, an AseBio member company, the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease is at a particularly important juncture. “After many years of focusing on the disease solely from the perspective of brain pathology associated with the formation of amyloid beta protein plaques in the brain, the disease is now being considered from a global perspective,” she explains.

This new perspective incorporates bioenergetic, inflammatory, immunological and genetic aspects and, according to Barrachina, is helping to advance towards a more holistic understanding of the disease and open up new avenues for treatment development.

Anticipating Progression to Advance Personalised Medicine

The ability to understand how each patient’s condition may evolve becomes particularly important when the first symptoms of cognitive impairment appear. “Being able to intervene early, at stages when the progression of patients experiencing the first symptoms of cognitive impairment is still unclear, opens up a wider range of possibilities for the patient,” says Barrachina.

ADmit Therapeutics is working in this field with MAP-AD®, an in vitro test bearing the CE-IVDR marking designed to predict progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. The technology combines blood biomarkers based on mitochondrial DNA methylation with risk factors such as ApoE genotype, age and neuropsychological assessment, together with Next Generation Sequencing and Machine Learning technologies.

“MAP-AD® provides a prognosis of progression to dementia due to the disease, which is the most clinically relevant aspect and determines the patient’s progression and their relationship with their surroundings,” explains Barrachina. This information can complement data on brain pathology and other clinical factors to support a more personalised approach.

Biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence to Integrate More Information

One of the changes highlighted by ADmit Therapeutics is the possibility of incorporating variables that have traditionally received less attention into the approach to the disease. Barrachina points out that the presence of amyloid beta plaques “cannot, on its own, explain the clinical complexity of each patient.”

Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning make it possible to analyse this information jointly. “The use of artificial intelligence and Machine Learning allows us to analyse all this patient data in a complex way, providing an approach that would be impossible if we were to treat the data individually and through traditional methods,” she emphasises.

This capability can also contribute to research and the development of new treatments. Patient stratification remains one of the challenges in clinical trials, as Barrachina explains that some patients with amyloid beta plaques do not subsequently develop dementia. Incorporating cognitive progression biomarkers may help to better define the different patient groups.

The Challenge of Translating Innovation into the Healthcare System

The development of new technologies also presents the challenge of incorporating them into clinical practice. Barrachina points out that procedures and regulations can slow down the adoption of new solutions, particularly in public healthcare systems.

In the case of MAP-AD®, its CE-IVDR marking allows the company to begin collaborating with neurologists and commercialising the product, although, according to Barrachina, it is still necessary to “overcome the resistance established by standard procedures.”

Looking ahead to the coming years, the CEO of ADmit Therapeutics envisions a “very promising” scenario, driven by a broader understanding of the disease and the integration of new data with artificial intelligence tools. “All this data and the artificial intelligence that we have already incorporated are helping Alzheimer’s disease to embark on a path similar to that of oncology, which already enables the highly personalised monitoring and treatment of cancer patients,” she concludes.