Bio-Hermes Data Summit

In February 2024, the Brain Health ARC, supported by Race Against Dementia, launched a national competition inviting researchers to submit proposals to access the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP)’s Bio-Hermes-001 dataset, the most comprehensive set of dementia biomarker data from ground-breaking blood testing studies for Alzheimer’s disease. 

Over 40 submissions were received in just over a year and in March 2025, the Data Summit showcased some of these projects in a hybrid Glasgow-based event. 

“Dementia progresses quickly, but traditional research moves slowly. We wanted our Data Challenge to challenge this assumption. We have shown that with collaboration, support, and a little hard work we can do things differently. Through working in partnership with GAP, and the dementia research community, in a matter of months, we have completed a portfolio of high quality, impactful research,” said Professor Terry Quinn, Director of the Brain Health ARC. 

The one-year timeline is extraordinary in Alzheimer’s research, where studies and clinical trials typically take years. The ambitious timeline has now proven that researchers could take an agile approach in Alzheimer’s research, demonstrating that urgency is possible. 

"It was an honour for GAP to collaborate with the Brain Health ARC and the Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative to undertake the Bio-Hermes Data Challenge Summit.  Professor Quinn and his colleagues organised the Challenge in six months and attracted a multi-disciplined group of the UK's leading researchers to interrogate the Bio-Hermes database with the assistance of ADDI to explore novel hypotheses related to Alzheimer's and related dementias. Over the ensuing year, competing teams advanced their research with unparalleled speed and rigor." said GAP President John Dwyer.  

Research teams showcased their concepts for a chance to win in three categories: poster presentation, quick-fire project presentation, and oral presentation. Below are the winners along with titles of their projects:  
Winning Poster Presentation:  

• Blood cytokine profiles in AD and their association with neurodegeneration and clinical severity. Presented by Katherine R. Birditt, University of Cambridge 
  
  

Winning Quick Fire Project Presentations:  

• Resilience Defining cognitive resilience and resistance to Alzheimer’s dementia using novel. Presented by Connor Dalby and Austin Jon Dibble, University of Glasgow 

• Higher Cardiovascular Risk as Moderator of the Relationship between Blood Plasma Dementia Biomarkers and Cognitive Impairment. Presented by Angelina Kancheva, University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh 
  
  

Winning Oral Presentation:  

• Functional Independence as an excellent predictor of cognitive status. Presented by Kalliopi Mavromati, University of Glasgow 
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The Data Challenge ethos of end-to-end support, fully open access data, and collaborative team science has represented a new approach to dementia research, and we are pleased to announce that the ARC will be launching a second challenge later in 2025.