AAIC 2026 – Novel Plasma Biomarkers Associated with Amyloid PET Positivity and Tau PET Staging across the Alzheimer’s Disease Continuum

Product:
Alzheimer's, Neurology
Topic:
Disease Area:
Alzheimer's Disease
Sample Type:
Plasma
Topic/Product:
Alzheimer's, Neurology
Disease Area:
Alzheimer's Disease
Sample Type:
Plasma

Study Objective and Cohort

Background: Blood-based biomarkers (BBMs) are transforming Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis and staging. While pTau-217 emerging as the lead BBM for identifying AD pathology, additional biomarkers are needed to fully implement diagnostic and staging frameworks. Here, we employed ultrasensitive NULISA (Nucleic acid-Linked Immuno-Sandwich Assay)1 technology to analyze a well-characterized Korean cohort to identify novel proteins along the AD progression continuum.

Methods: We developed the NULISAseq Neuro 220 Panel for the detection of >220 biomarkers associated with neuroinflammation, synaptic pathology, and vascular dysfunction including brain-derived (BD) pTaus and eMTBR Tau. We analyzed 300 plasma samples (mean age = 75.42, 71.33% females) from cognitively unimpaired individuals (CU, n=93), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=163) and dementia cases (n=44) and used linear regression models to identify differentially expressed (DE) proteins and those associated with amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) positivity (centiloid > 20) and ATN PET staging.

Authors:

Yoo Hyum Um1, Li Wang2, Adheesha Danthanarayana2, Wen Xue2, Karl Garcia2, Terry Lai2, Roopa Comandur2, Gloria Hu2, Sean Kim2, Eliza Chai2, Niyati Jhaveri2, Xiaolei Qiu2, Bingqing Zhang2, Sasi Mudumba2, Yuling Luo2, Hyun Kook Lim1, Irene B Meier3, Vaibhav A Narayan3, Xiao-Jun Ma2

1The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea; 2Alamar Biosciences, Fremont, USA; 3Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, Geneva, Switzerland

Steve Williams, MD, PhD

CSO

Dr. Willams serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer. He was previously Chief Medical Officer at Standard Biotools and at SomaLogic where he pioneered the discipline for discovery and validation of predictive, diagnostic and prognostic models using machine-learning applied to large-plex proteomics. 20 such tests were used for drug characterization, safety and efficacy when incorporated in clinical drug trials at Pharma/Biotech and 17 different multivariate tests were validated and translated into regulated healthcare uses. Prior to SomaLogic, Dr. Williams was at Pfizer in the UK and the USA as a clinical triallist in Translational Medicine, and subsequently as VP, Global Clinical Technology. He sat on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the Executive Committee for the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium, and worked with FDA and PhRMA on developing evidentiary standards for biomarker qualification. Dr. William’s medical training was in London, at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, followed by a PhD in medicine/physiology at the same institution and training in Radiology at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Steve is co-inventor on 26 proteomics patents and author/coauthor on multiple foundational proteomics manuscripts.

Justin McAnear

CFO

Mr. McAnear serves as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. He brings over 25 years of operational and financial leadership experience across various sectors and was instrumental in taking 10x Genomics public in 2019, serving as its CFO for over five years. Mr. McAnear served for over 3 years as Tesla’s VP of Worldwide Finance and Operations, supporting landmark initiatives such as the Model X and Model 3 launches and Solar City acquisition.  He also held various roles at Apple and J&J earlier in his career and served as a naval officer and aviator for over 9 years.