Decoding Lewy Body Dementia: From Early Clinical Signals to Biological Precision

Dementia with Lewy bodies is increasingly understood as a biologically heterogeneous disorder that begins years before dementia becomes clinically apparent. This lecture will examine how clinical features, structural and metabolic neuroimaging, and emerging fluid biomarkers—including α-synuclein seed amplification assays—can help identify Lewy body disease earlier and more accurately. Particular attention will be given to co-pathologies, phenotypic heterogeneity, and the potential of multimodal biomarker strategies to improve prognosis, patient stratification, and readiness for disease-modifying trials.

Daniel Ferreira, PhD, is Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and Director of its Center for Alzheimer Research. His work focuses on ageing and neurodegenerative diseases, particularly dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer’s disease, combining neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers and clinical phenotyping to enable earlier and more precise diagnosis.