What trials or projects has the Diagnostics Accelerator directly funded and what are their current statuses?
Executive summary
The Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA), run by the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), has directly funded scores of biomarker development projects—ranging from blood-based amyloid assays and retinal scans to digital memory apps and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) biomarker studies—and has moved several into late-stage validation or commercialization partnerships [1] [2]. Public reporting highlights specific awardees (e.g., Henrik Zetterberg’s blood Aβ work, Bluefield Project FTD studies, Cogstate digital tests) and recent large investments into companies (Alamar Biosciences, C2N Diagnostics), but a definitive, up-to-the-minute roster and status for every DxA-backed trial is not fully available in the sources provided [3] [4] [5].
1. What the Diagnostics Accelerator actually funds and how
DxA targets translational biomarker work—peripheral (blood) biomarkers, ocular scans and digital tools—using a venture-philanthropy model that couples grants or mission-related investments with industry/regulatory consulting and sample-access partnerships to push candidates toward clinical validation and commercialization [2] [6] [7]. The initiative has a history of staged awards where exploratory projects can be eligible for follow-on validation funding, and DxA has arranged access to biopharma trial samples through partners like Janssen/Shionogi, Eisai and Roche to support validation-stage work [6] [8].
2. Notable academic and collaborative projects DxA directly funded
Public coverage names several specific academic projects funded by DxA: Henrik Zetterberg’s lab at University of Gothenburg received a multi‑million-dollar award to develop blood assays for Aβ40/Aβ42 in collaboration with Roche Diagnostics, a project framed as progression toward a scalable amyloid blood test [3]. DxA also funded the Bluefield Project to evaluate blood neurofilament light chain in presymptomatic inherited FTD, a grant reported at around $1.2 million [3]. Earlier rounds included awards for retinal imaging and other blood-test efforts among ten projects receiving multi‑million-dollar support in 2022 [3] [2].
3. Company-stage investments and current commercial push
In addition to academic grants, DxA has made larger mission-related investments in industry: a $10 million DxA investment in Alamar Biosciences announced January 2025 aims to accelerate Alamar’s ARGO-HT platform toward an FDA-cleared IVD system [4]. DxA also invested more than $7 million into C2N Diagnostics’ blood tests as announced in September 2024, and ADDF seed-funding helped bring the PrecivityAD® blood test to market—an example DxA cites of its catalytic role [5]. These moves indicate DxA’s current emphasis on late-stage translation and commercialization for diagnostic tools it previously seeded [4] [5].
4. Digital biomarkers and remote assessment trials
DxA seeded digital memory projects early in its program: for example, Cogstate received funding to adapt a validated memory test to smartphones/tablets to enable remote cognitive monitoring, linked with a requirement that data be shared on an open platform (Sage Bionetworks’ Synapse) to accelerate algorithmic development [9] [7]. DxA’s digital portfolio was expanded in later rounds to explicitly push digital endpoints toward clinical trial utility and broader validation [7] [10].
5. Scale, outcomes, and program status
DxA has publicly reported investing tens of millions across dozens of projects: initial and second-phase announcements cited roughly $50 million invested in more than 40 projects and later statements put cumulative DxA investments in the $70–80+ million range across 60–70 projects as the initiative continued into 2024–2025 [1] [5] [4]. The program is actively steering several funded assets toward commercialization, and ADDF has closed current funding rounds to unsolicited applications while it concentrates resources on ongoing projects and follow-on investments [11] [6] [7].
6. Limits of available reporting and unanswered specifics
Public sources identify headline awardees and aggregate tallies but do not provide a complete, itemized list of every DxA-funded trial or an up-to-the-day status for each study; therefore a comprehensive per-project status report cannot be compiled from these materials alone. ADDF’s grants portfolio page and press releases list many recipients and program rules (sample sharing, staged awards), but researchers seeking full trial statuses—enrollment, readouts, regulatory filings—must consult ADDF’s grants portfolio or individual awardee disclosures for granular, current updates [6] [2] [11].