Siemens Healthineers has launched two new blood-based brain biomarker assays, offering researchers a less invasive, scalable path to detecting Alzheimer’s disease earlier than ever before.
With nearly 10 million new dementia cases diagnosed globally every year and Alzheimer’s accounting for up to 70% of them the urgency for faster, more accessible diagnostic tools has never been greater. Today, Siemens Healthineers answered that call with the launch of two groundbreaking research assays: the Atellica IM Phosphorylated Tau 217 (pTau217) and the Atellica IM Brain Derived Tau (BDTau) both now available for research use.
These fully automated blood tests measure two key neurological biomarkers strongly associated with Alzheimer’s progression. Crucially, they offer a far less invasive alternative to cerebrospinal fluid testing, which requires a lumbar puncture a painful and complex procedure that limits widespread screening.
“Blood tests are much easier for both patients and doctors you can scale testing, follow patients, or perhaps prepare a biomarker portfolio,” said Dr. Henrik Zetterberg, an internationally renowned neuroscientist and Alzheimer’s biomarker pioneer.
The assays run on Siemens Healthineers’ widely installed Atellica Solution IM and Atellica CI Analyzers, making them accessible to research institutions already equipped with the technology. The high sensitivity of the platform is essential for detecting neurological biomarkers reliably from a simple blood draw.
Siemens Healthineers is also actively collaborating with leading research programmes including PREDICTOM, ACCESS-AD, and Banner Sun Health Research Institute to validate these biomarkers across diverse patient populations and advance early Alzheimer’s detection in clinical settings.
Researchers at Banner describe early findings as highly promising, with p-tau217 showing strong potential as a reliable clinical biomarker.
For a disease that quietly robs millions of their memory and independence, a simple blood test could be the turning point the world has been waiting for.
Source: Siemens Healthineers
