Steve Verdooner: Retinal Imaging for Alzheimer's Disease

Retinal imaging offers a non-invasive, high-resolution diagnostic pathway for identifying Alzheimer’s disease by leveraging the retina's status as a direct outgrowth of the central nervous system. Steven Verdooner, CEO of NeuroVision Imaging, details how the company’s Afina technology quantifies autofluorescent amyloid beta plaques in the retina, providing a scalable screening alternative to expensive and invasive PET scans. Foundational research, including studies on transgenic mice and human tissue, confirms that these retinal plaques correlate with brain pathology and can appear even before cognitive symptoms manifest. By integrating retinal imaging with blood-based biomarkers—such as tau and neurofilament light—the platform aims to significantly enhance predictive accuracy. This multi-modal approach seeks to establish a high-sensitivity diagnostic tool, currently undergoing clinical validation, to streamline patient assessment and improve the early detection of neurodegenerative conditions.