Development of personalised models of cognitive decline Appeared in BioNews 1096 A new model able to predict cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease could help to develop personalised treatments. With an aim to identify therapeutic targets, researchers at McGill University, Canada, combined results from brain scans with gene activity data. This allowed them to explore the relationship between changes in gene expression and physical changes in the brain across normal brain ageing and cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. 'We wanted to combine whole-brain gene activity measurements with clinical scan data in a comprehensive and personalised model, which we then validated in healthy ageing and Alzheimer's disease' said lead author Quadri Adewale.