An international team led by the ITACA Institute at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has developed one of the most comprehensive and detailed structural atlases of the human brain to date. Known as HoliAtlas, it will be particularly useful for the study and early diagnosis of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

The new map is based on ultra-high-resolution multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and far exceeds the level of detail found in existing MRI-based atlases.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports (Nature), was led by Professor José V. Manjón, coordinator of the MIALAB group at ITACA-UPV, in collaboration with international institutions such as the CNRS and the University of Bordeaux, as well as Spanish and European centres.

A St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital–led collaboration created the first large-scale neurodegenerative disease proteome map, a resource for developing new diagnosis tools and treatments.

New blood tests for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease are making early diagnosis increasingly feasible. However, the fact that the markers being measured change long before any symptoms develop represents a challenge. Research led by Lund University in Sweden shows that a previously unused blood marker, when combined with those markers already in use, can significantly reduce the risk of misleading diagnoses.