January 21, 2022 – Cleveland Clinic has launched a landmark study to better understand why millions of people around the world suffer from brain diseases, with the goal of pinpointing disease biomarkers early, well before clinical symptoms present themselves.
The new Cleveland Clinic Brain Study – the largest clinical study ever for brain disease – will collect data from up to 200,000 neurologically healthy individuals over a 20-year period to identify brain disease biomarkers and targets for preventing and curing neurological disorders.
One in every six people around the globe has a neurological disease such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke or epilepsy. While the medical community has learned to manage some symptoms of brain disorders, it remains challenging to predict who will become sick or how to cure – or even stop the progression of – these diseases once they are diagnosed.
The initial phase of the study will enroll 10,000 volunteers over the first five years who will be examined and thoroughly investigated. This will include adults 50 years and older with no known neurological disorder or neurologically healthy adults aged 20 and older who have a first-degree relative diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Using advanced computing tools, researchers will collect data points from the study volunteers. Collectively, these data points will form a trend line to capture the genetic risk factors, and invisible molecular, structural, neurophysiological and cognitive/memory changes in the brain over time. Researchers will seek “disease fingerprints” to help guide diagnostic and preventative medicines.