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U.S. Research Initiative Launches on Brain Aging to Help Prevent, Treat Dementia

July 9, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

Synexus HealthyMinds Registry Seeks 30,000 Participants Without Dementia for Five-Year Study Designed to Understand How Healthy Brains Age

HORSHAM, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Synexus HealthyMinds Registry (Synexus HMR), one of the largest research initiatives of its kind in the United States, has launched and is seeking 30,000 U.S. participants for a five-year study examining the lifestyle and genetic risk factors impacting cognitive function over time. Supporting researchers’ goal of identifying ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, the registry is open at www.SynexusHMR.com for U.S. adults age 50 or older who do not have dementia.

Synexus HMR is a collaboration between Accelerated Enrollment Solutions (AES) – a business unit of Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD), the global contract research organization – and the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.

“For those who want to empower themselves with the latest information in brain health and dementia prevention strategies and research, our new registry offers novel and valuable ways to get involved – to do good and do well,” said Alireza Atri, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator on the study, director of the Banner Sun Health Research Institute (BSHRI) in Sun City, Arizona, and a longtime faculty member in neurology at Harvard Medical School. “Synexus HMR provides opportunities to learn and engage in activities that can help protect our aging brains, as well as contribute to critical studies to determine what combination of age, lifestyle and genetic factors can lead to better preservation of mental faculties and vital aging.”

The Synexus HMR study is being conducted exclusively online at www.SynexusHMR.com and features annual cognitive assessments, lifestyle and medical questionnaires, and free brain training games. Registry participants also will be among the first to learn about clinical research studies of promising new treatments for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, and they may be afforded opportunities to join clinical trials. For those trials, research-focused enrollment will be managed by AES and centered on communities surrounding its clinical research sites and major Alzheimer’s research facilities.

“People with mild cognitive impairment often are not in contact with specialty or even with primary care physicians, so only broader registries can provide access to a large enough population to do research,” said Dawie Wessels, M.D., MBA, chief medical officer of AES. “There are existing registries with lots of people in them, but with very little data. By engaging participants in a longitudinal way, Synexus HMR will be able to provide a substantial amount of valuable data to the research community studying prevention and treatment of dementia.”

About AES

Accelerated Enrollment Solutions is a business unit of PPD that offers sponsors and contract research organizations best-in-class site conduct and patient access solutions. These solutions are available as discrete services or integrated to provide a cohesive and highly differentiated trial acceleration strategy for insourced or outsourced clinical studies, all under results-based commercial terms. For more information, visit www.globalAES.com.

About the University of Exeter Medical School

The University of Exeter Medical School is improving the health and well-being of the South West United Kingdom and beyond through the development of high-quality graduates and world-leading research that has international impact. As part of a Russell Group university, the medical school combines this world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. The institution achieves its mission through swiftly turning new discoveries into treatments therapies, and through nurturing graduates, staff and researchers who are critical thinkers and problem solvers. The University of Exeter Medical School works closely with the National Health Service and health care providers to ensure its innovations tackle complex global health care needs. For more information, visit https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk.

About PPD

PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 48 countries and more than 21,000 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a firm commitment to quality to help clients and partners bend the cost and time curve of drug development and optimize value in delivering life-changing therapies to improve health. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com.