Project EARDREAM – Global Equity in Early Alzheimer’s Detection

International Day of Women and Girls in Science 

With regard to International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, we would like to acknowledge all women in science and bring attention to women’s achievements and research in the sleep field. The ESRS Gender Equality Forum (previously Forum for Women in Sleep Research) is an open forum created in 1998 (during the ESRS Congress in Madrid). It aims to:  

• raise awareness about the concept of gender inequality and the impact that inequality has on people of all genders and/or identities 
• identify current issues and attitudes regarding gender inequality within the ESRS and wider sleep research field 
• promote equal treatment for all European Sleep Research Society members regardless of their sex, gender, or gender identity 

Since its inception, the Forum has been successively led by distinguished female scientists in the sleep field – Prof. Irene Tobler (Switzerland), Prof. Tarja Porkka-Heiskanen (Finland), Prof. Theresa Sagales (Spain), Prof. Teresa Paiva (Portugal), Prof. Myriam Kerkhofs (Belgium), Prof. Eveline de Bruin (the Netherlands) and Dr. Raphaelle Winsky-Sommerer (England). 

Most recently, the GEF has been under the progressive leadership of Dr. Caroline Lustenberger (Switzerland) as of 2021. Dr. Lustenberger along with the GEF focus group members Dr. Ximena Omlin, Dr. Carolin Reichert, Dr. Jaime Devine, Amber Roguski, and Dr. Fran Pilkington-Cheney are committed to closing the leaky pipeline for women in science and academia.  

Find out more about the GEF. 

Project EARDREAM 

Today on International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we single out Dr. Lustenberger’s contribution to science by featuring one of her most recent projects. 

Dr. Lustenberger alongside Prof. Rafael Polania from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich, are working on an initiative called EARDREAM, where they aim to develop a biomarker for asymptomatic and early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease. With their low-cost, wearable device technology, they will be able to ensure global equity in early detection. It will be readily accessible, especially in low-to-middle income countries, which is expected to have the most future cases. 

The device “detects specific changes of brain activity during sleep and wakefulness in the convenience of people’s homes, based on a wearable device that can record high-quality brain activity from the ear in a non-obtrusive manner.”  

This progressive project which could change the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease is currently underway, but additional funding is needed. 

For more details on the EARDREAM project, you can read the full article on ETH Zürich and a recent interview from Dr. Lustenberger.