Stop Alzheimer, the Foundation for Alzheimer’s Research, is supporting four projects led by researchers at the University of Liège (GIGA Institute), in 2026, for a total amount of €630,000.
These new grants bring the total number of ULiège projects supported by Stop Alzheimer in recent years to 23, for a cumulative amount of €4.2 million, making the Foundation the main supporter of projects conducted by ULiège to improve understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.
The four projects supported in 2026 are:
In Belgium, Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders represent a major medical, scientific and societal challenge. Population ageing makes it even more urgent to better understand the early mechanisms of the disease, improve diagnostic tools and open up new therapeutic avenues.
“The University of Liège plays a leading role in advancing our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease. We are pleased to support these promising projects, selected for their scientific quality and their potential to advance research for the benefit of patients and their families,” says Lucie Leroux, Head of French-speaking activities at Stop Alzheimer, the Foundation for Alzheimer’s Research.
The project led by Christina Schmidt (Lab of Chronobiology & Cognition Laboratory, GIGA Institute), in collaboration with Marieke Hoekstra from the KULeuven and in partnership with Mohamed Ali Bahri, investigates the links between sleep, body and brain temperature, and blood markers associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle often appear before cognitive decline and are associated with the early accumulation of pathological markers, such as amyloid plaques and tau protein aggregates.
The project explores the hypothesis that the drop in temperature associated with sleep may play a neuroprotective role. By studying fluctuations in body and brain temperature, as well as their relationship with sleep and early biomarkers of the disease, the team aims to open up new avenues for better understanding the early mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and, ultimately, identifying new therapeutic strategies.
With the MAGyC project, Mikhail Zubkov is studying the glymphatic system, a natural mechanism through which the brain clears waste, including certain proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease, such as beta-amyloid.
The brain removes this waste through the movement of fluids across its tissues. When this system malfunctions, toxic substances can accumulate and contribute to the development of Alzheimer-type diseases. The project aims to determine whether dysfunction of the glymphatic system increases the risk of developing the disease.
To do this, the researchers are using MRI, particularly during sleep, when this brain-clearing process is most active and when abnormalities may be more visible. The objective is to improve early screening and prevention by better understanding the role of the glymphatic system in the earliest stages of the disease.
This project aims to develop a memory test capable of detecting very early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, even before an official diagnosis is made. The advantage of this test is that it is not directly influenced by natural differences between individuals, such as general memory or intelligence levels.
Rather than measuring only what participants remember, the test analyses the indirect effect of certain information on their responses, in order to identify subtle changes in the brain. The researchers will combine cognitive testing, high-precision brain imaging and blood biomarker measurements in people over the age of 60 who report memory problems but have not received a diagnosis.
The goal is to establish a cognitive test sensitive to the earliest brain changes, capable of contributing to an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
This project also focuses on the glymphatic system, but with an approach centred on comparing different cognitive and clinical states. Using non-invasive 7T MRI, the researchers will measure the brain’s ability to clear waste by comparing imaging performed during wakefulness and during sleep in each participant.
The study will combine several techniques to observe the movement of cerebrospinal fluid, brain structure, certain regions important for memory, and the spaces around blood vessels.
Three groups will be studied: healthy older adults, patients with persistent symptoms after concussion, and patients with mild cognitive impairment. The aim is to make sleep-state glymphatic MRI an early tool for detecting Alzheimer’s disease and better predicting the risk of cognitive decline.
Stop Alzheimer — the Foundation for Alzheimer’s Research supports fundamental and clinical scientific research conducted in Belgium in order to better understand Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, improve diagnosis and develop new therapeutic avenues.
People interested in taking part in a study can contact the researchers by email at agitude@uliege.be or by telephone on +32 (0)4 366 32 12.
Lucie Leroux, Head of Stop Alzheimer
lucie@stopalzheimer.be
L'édition 2026 de la Nuit des Chercheur·es se tiendra le vendredi 25 septembre 2026. Impliquée dans la Nuit des Chercheur·es depuis sa création, l'ULiège vous invite à participer à cette manifestation de culture scientifique.
SCOPE, dedicated to developing more sustainable IT infrastructure, and ShuttleToBrain, which explores new approaches to improving the delivery of drugs to the brain. Two new IMR projects at ULiège.
ULiège was present at Pride on 31 August: a colourful parade to reaffirm the institution's commitment to LGBTQIA+ rights.
