Airalzh Onlus (Italian Association for Alzheimer’s Research) has announced the six winners of the 2025 AGYR Grant Call (Airalzh Grants for Young Researchers). They are Nerisa Banaj, Federico Cazzaniga, Guido Maria Giuffrè, Silvia Cecilia Pelucchi, Rebecca Piccarducci, and Lorenzo Pini, who will develop their research projects dedicated to identifying the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and to prevention.
«Investing in Alzheimer’s Disease Research – declares Alessandra Mocali, president of Airalzh Onlus – is increasingly important. Italy ranks eighth among the countries with the largest number of people affected. These figures tell the scale of a socio-healthcare challenge that touches millions among patients, families, and caregivers. Research represents the only path to respond with more effective tools and offer a higher quality of life to those facing the disease. Our Association thus continues to invest in this field not only to reach early diagnoses and effective therapies but also to give young researchers under 40 a chance to rise and develop independent careers in Italy. In the coming weeks, indeed, Airalzh will open applications for the new AGYR 2026 call, increasing funding from €300,000 to €400,000».
The Awarded Projects
The winning works were selected by the Airalzh technical-scientific committee, composed of top-tier international experts. The researchers come from universities and centers of excellence in Milan, Padua, Pisa, and Rome, and will present their project at the SINdem4Juniors conference, on Thursday, February 5, in Bressanone.
The amount allocated to research totals €300,000, with a cumulative investment – for AGYR calls over the past five years – of €1.8 million.
The research project of Nerisa Banaj, a psychologist and researcher at IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome, envisions using innovative, non-invasive tools to early identify people at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. In particular, advanced analytics systems will be used to learn from data and identify complex patterns to integratively analyze clinical information, neuropsychological test results, and brain imaging, also estimating the difference between the brain’s biological age and the person’s chronological age. Through this integration, the study aims to recognize very early signals of brain changes, fostering prevention programs and personalized interventions, and progressively improving the quality of care for patients and families.
Federico Cazzaniga, a researcher at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico “Carlo Besta” in Milan, addresses cerebral amyloid angiopathy, highlighting its shared features with Alzheimer’s disease. This study introduces an innovative approach based on tear analysis, a readily accessible biofluid closely linked to the central nervous system. The goal is to apply cutting-edge techniques to detect traces of beta-amyloid in tears from patients at different stages of the disease and characterize their properties, paving the way for early diagnosis of cerebral amyloid angiopathy, delineation of its phenotypes, and, most importantly, its distinction from Alzheimer’s disease.
Guido Maria Giuffrè, neurologist and neuroscience researcher at the Memory Clinic of the Fondazione Policlinico “Agostino Gemelli” IRCCS and at the Department of Neurosciences of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Rome Campus), starts from numerous studies that, over the years, have shown that brain inflammatory processes play a significant role even in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The project aims to study neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease through the analysis of plasmatic biomarkers and extracellular vesicles derived from glial cells (GDEVs). The study will evaluate subjects across the different clinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease, examining the association between GDEVs, neuroinflammation biomarkers, cognitive status, and clinical progression. Moreover, GDEVs will be used to study their effects on human neurons derived from stem cells: an approach that could contribute to identifying new early biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets. Giuffrè is supported – as Co-Principal Investigator – by Raimondo Sollazzo, research fellow at the Department of Neurosciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Rome Campus).
Silvia Pelucchi, a researcher at the Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Milan, proposes to investigate the overlap between Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia forms associated with the alpha-synuclein protein. Indeed, both the diagnosis and treatment of dementias are often complicated by the presence of multiple brain alterations in the same patient. The project develops a preclinical experimental model based on reprogramming patients’ skin cells into neural cells, useful for determining the molecular mechanisms underlying these co-pathologies, with particular attention to the synaptic dysfunction characteristic of the early stages of Alzheimer’s pathology. The results could contribute to improving early diagnosis and to promoting the development of more targeted and personalized therapeutic strategies.
Among the winners is Rebecca Piccarducci, a biochemistry researcher at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Pisa, affiliated with the Interdepartmental Center “Pisa Neuroscience” (PiNeuro) and the Core Facilities platform “Center for Instrument Sharing” of the University of Pisa (CISUP). Her project focuses on the ApoE4 genetic variant, a major risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease that renders neurons more vulnerable and promotes the loss of connections between nerve cells. The study aims to determine whether targeted activation of a particular protein (PKCε) can protect neurons and promote the restoration of damaged synaptic connections, even in the presence of the ApoE4 variant. Using human neurons carrying this genetic variant, the project seeks to identify new potential therapeutic strategies. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the discovery of more precise and personalized treatments that can slow down or prevent neurodegeneration in people genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease.
The Lorenzo Pini project, a researcher at the Department of Neurosciences at the University of Padova and the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM), aims to understand how prolonged exposure to pollutants, such as PFAS, can damage both the structure of brain connections and the normal exchange of information. This phenomenon makes the brain system less efficient and more vulnerable over time, increasing the risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases later in life. By integrating data from healthy individuals living in highly polluted areas with preclinical studies, the project seeks to clarify how chronic exposure to pollution can impact brain health before symptoms appear. The results could contribute to the development of new prevention strategies, supporting environmental protection policies and interventions aimed at safeguarding the population’s brain health.
Abbonati a Karla Miller
