LEADing the way in dementia research: using AI to accelerate evidence synthesis and discovery

Despite substantial investment in dementia research, therapeutic options for patients remain limited. To facilitate the planning of new experiments and to inform decision making, there is a need to "make sense" of the best available evidence. However, the sheer volume of relevant research investigating dementia pathology across cells, animals, and patients is restrictive to efficient synthesis. Traditional methods, such as systematic review and meta-analysis, are extremely time-consuming, resource-heavy, and incapable of providing meaningful insights at scale to inform future research in real-time. To address this, I propose to leverage the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), including large language models, to bring together fragmented data and unlock biological insights. As part of this proposal, I will answer two research questions: (1) How can we curate evidence across dementia research silos? (2) How can we maximise the potential of accumulating evidence to improve translational success? I will develop the Living Evidence in Alzheimer’s and Dementia (LEAD) platform - a curated and continually updated database of all dementia research that will serve as a central resource throughout the project. Through co-creation with dementia researchers, I will discover new approaches to combine data holistically to facilitate evidence-based discovery and biological understanding.