Published: 19-09-2024 16:46 | Updated: 19-09-2024 22:06

World-leading Alzheimer's researchers celebrated the Goodes Prize at KI

Eric Westman, professor at NVS, Martin Bergö, professor and vice president at KI, Miia Kivipelto, professor at NVS, Lars Lannfelt, professor emeritus at Uppsala University and Maria Ankarcrona, professor and head of department at NVS at the Goodes Prize ceremony at the Stockholm City Hall, September 10, 2024. Photo: Yanan Li

Some of the world’s most prominent Alzheimer’s researchers congregated recently in Stockholm for the tenth anniversary of the prestigious Goodes Prize. The programme included a seminar day and a study visit to Karolinska Institutet followed by a social event in Stockholm City Hall.

The Melvin R. Goodes Prize is awarded annually by the USA’s Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and was founded by Melvin R. Goodes, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who suffered himself from Alzheimer’s disease.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the prize, a Science Day was held on 9 September in Aula Medica. The event opened with an address by HM Queen Silvia and a welcome speech by KI president Annika Östman Wernerson and included lectures and panel debates with all ten winners of the Goodes prize on the stage. 

Former prize-winners at BioClinicum

These ten scientists represent world-class research that has helped to unravel the mysteries of cognitive diseases and paved the way for new methods of diagnosis, prevention and treatment. 

On the following day, some fifty guests visited BioClinicum for presentations and tours arranged by Professor Miia Kivipelto’s groups at KI, Karolinska University Hospital and the FINGERS Brain Health Institute. 

Professor Kivipelto was Sweden’s first Goodes Prize winner, having received the award three years ago. She leads the revolutionary FINGER research on lifestyle factors and the prevention of cognitive decline.

Medals for ten researchers

This year’s Goodes Prize was awarded to Professor Henrik Zetterberg of Gothenburg University for his pioneering research on biomarkers for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. 

The award ceremony was held on 10 September in Stockholm City Hall, during which medals were presented to all recipients of the Goodes Prize over the years. 

A number of leading scientists, the ten prize-winners among them, had come to Stockholm for the event accompanied by colleagues, heads of universities, organisations and businesses and representatives of the ADDF and members of the founding Lauder family along with other financiers and the family of Melvin R. Goodes himself.

KI President Annika Östman Wernerson, HM Queen Silvia, Professor Miia Kivipelto and this year's Goodes Prize winner Professor Henrik Zetterberg, GU and other Goodes Prize winners as well as Mark Roithmayr and Howard Fillit from ADDF. Photo: Yanan Li.

ADDF and Karolinska University Hospital

Over 57 million people live with Alzheimer’s disease globally, and in supporting research, the ADDF helps scientists understand more about the disease so that it can finally be conquered. 

One project supported by the ADDF is the multinational MET-FINGER study, for which the FINGERS Brain Health Institute is the lead partner for the Swedish arm. Here at Karolinska University Hospital, scientists are looking into the preventative effect of combining lifestyle interventions with the type 2 diabetes drug metformin on cognitive decline.