Siemens Healthineers expands brain health research portfolio with new biomarker assays

Dementia affects an estimated 10 million new patients per year worldwide.² Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60–70% of cases and is associated with progressive functional decline and increasing dependence on others for care.² 

The chemiluminescent immunoassays provide quantitative measurements of p-tau217 and BD tau from blood samples, offering a less-invasive alternative to cerebrospinal fluid analysis, which requires a lumbar puncture. "Siemens Healthineers is laser focused on expanding researchers' access to blood testing that can reduce the burden of invasive testing to better understand these diseases and help address the growing societal impact of neurodegenerative conditions," said Jim Freeman, head of Core Laboratory Solutions R&D for Diagnostics at Siemens Healthineers. "Our Atellica IM instrument enables the high sensitivity required to detect neurological biomarkers in blood." 

"Analyzer engineering is very important for amplifying the signal we need to achieve reliable results using blood tests," said Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD, an internationally renowned neuroscientist known for his pioneering research on biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. "Blood tests are much easier for both patients and doctors—you can scale testing, follow patients, or perhaps prepare a biomarker portfolio." 

Siemens Healthineers is participating in several research collaborations focused on earlier detection and characterization of neurological diseases using p-tau217 and BD tau biomarkers.^3-5 These include multi-cohort studies with PREDICTOM, ACCESS-AD, and the Banner Sun Health Research Institute. 

"We value the opportunity to work with the leading diagnostics companies to advance the fight against Alzheimer's disease, and this is a great example," said Nicholas Ashton, PhD, senior director of the Fluid Biomarker Program at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona. "We're working to validate the clinical utility of the plasma p-tau217 biomarker across diverse patient populations to advance early detection of Alzheimer's disease. Our findings appear to support the promise of this Alzheimer's blood biomarker in the clinical setting. We look forward to further advancing this research." 

Siemens Healthineers also offers a Neurofilament Light Chain assay (CE mark)⁶ for assessing the risk of future Multiple Sclerosis disease activity. Development is underway for additional markers, including Apolipoprotein E-ε4 (ApoE-ε4), a protein involved in lipid metabolism whose ε4 subtype is associated with Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular conditions. 

1. For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. These assays are intended to support scientific investigation and are not cleared or approved for clinical decision-making. 
2. World Health Organization, Dementia Fact Sheet 
3. Siemens Healthineers Co-Leads EU Alzheimer's Disease Care Initiative 
4. Oberstein, T. (2026, March). Brain-derived pTau217 in plasma outperforms pTau217 and brain-derived tau assays for identifying Alzheimer's disease (A+T1+) in MCI/mild dementia . AD/PD, Copenhagen, Denmark. 
5. Prediction of Alzheimer's disease using an AI-driven screening platform (PREDICTOM) 
6. CE0197. Available for Research Use Only in the U.S. 

Source: Siemens Healthineers 

19.03.2026

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