The Urgent and Global Need for Democratized Blood-Based Biomarker Diagnostics in Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represents one of the most pressing healthcare challenges of the 21st century. As a leading cause of dementia, AD impacts over 55 million people worldwide, with this number projected to exceed 139 million by 2050. The economic burden is staggering, with global costs estimated to reach over $15 trillion, placing immense strain on healthcare systems, patients and caregivers1,2. Despite significant recent progress in understanding the molecular pathology of AD, and in the development of emerging treatments3, 4, access to timely and widespread diagnosis remains a formidable challenge. As a result, many patients are only identified late in the disease course when symptoms are pronounced and neurodegeneration is progressive. This underscores the urgent need for more easily accessible diagnostic tools — particularly those based on blood-based biomarkers — that can facilitate early-stage AD diagnosis, and crucially, enable targeted medical interventions in an accessible and cost-effective way.