# Development of a blood-based test for neurodegenerative diseases

> **NIH NIH R41** · 3D BIOANALYTIX, INC. · 2024 · $472,695

## Abstract

STTR Project Summary/Abstract
It is estimated that every fourth to fifth death in the US is caused by a neurodegenerative disease
such as Alzheimer’s, AD related diseases, or Parkinson (CDC Wonder database, 2022;
Alzheimer’s Association, 2022). However, there are very few therapies or even molecular
diagnostic tools to detect these diseases, so the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and AD-related
neurodegenerative diseases relies primarily on cognitive assessments which typically only occur
with onset of dementia. With no diagnostic test available for the early detection of
neurodegeneration and no ability to differentiate between different neurodegenerative diseases
early on, it is unsurprising that over 43 % of primary care physicians report that they are
uncomfortable diagnosing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to Alzheimer’s (Alzheimer’s
Association, 2022). A diagnosis of ‘Alzheimer’s-type dementia’ also often serves as a placeholder
to describe a syndrome of memory loss that can result from various underlying disease causes,
and which may require different therapies. Therefore, we propose to use Covalent Protein
Painting (CPP), a novel platform technology that can detect, identify, and differentiate the
misfolded protein aggregates that characterize AD and related neurodegenerative diseases, to
develop a blood-based diagnostic test for neurodegeneration. Over 80% of primary care
physicians say they would welcome such a test, in particular if such a test could detect AD and
related diseases before patients are symptomatic or only show mild symptoms because it would
help them devise a therapy plan with their patient and allow them to be proactive. Better and
earlier diagnostics would also lead to better therapies, because one of the reasons so many
clinical trials for neurodegenerative drugs have failed is that participants are usually treated too
late, when symptoms are already apparent. Our test would allow earlier enrollment of patients in
clinical trials before too much damage has been done to the brain and would enable better
stratification of patient cohorts, both of which would accelerate and increase success chances of
clinical trials.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10922630
- **Project number:** 1R41AG087866-01
- **Recipient organization:** 3D BIOANALYTIX, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Sandra Pankow
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $472,695
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-25 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10922630

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10922630, Development of a blood-based test for neurodegenerative diseases (1R41AG087866-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10922630. Licensed CC0.

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