SpeechDx will accelerate the development of scalable digital markers that can guide earlier intervention and more personalized care
NEW YORK, June 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A new paper published today in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association highlights how AI and digital speech-based markers are converging to define the next frontier in Alzheimer’s diagnostics, offering a promising path forward as scalable tools to allow earlier detection, monitoring, and treatment by identifying subtle changes in cognition before decline is clinically apparent.
“Blood tests have changed what’s possible for Alzheimer’s diagnosis, but truly getting ahead of this disease will require digital and AI tools that can predict cognitive decline before it starts,” said Melissa Lee, PhD, Director of the Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and lead author of the paper. “Speech is one of the most promising digital markers because it is accessible, low burden, and closely tied to cognition. Through initiatives like SpeechDx, the ADDF is leading the use of AI in Alzheimer’s research by building the datasets needed to train and validate digital tools, which will help us open the door to more timely intervention, and ultimately, prevention at scale.”
The paper comes at a pivotal moment for Alzheimer’s diagnostics. With two Alzheimer’s blood tests now approved by the FDA to identify amyloid pathology, there is an opportunity to begin investing in the next generation of tools. As the field advances toward earlier intervention and prevention, digital markers can inform who should get blood tests and when by helping identify who is most likely to decline, supporting earlier risk assessment and more personalized care.
SpeechDx, a three-year, multinational, observational study launched by the ADDF’s Diagnostics Accelerator, was designed to address one of the major barriers limiting the development of validated speech-based tools: the lack of large, longitudinal, multilingual datasets with harmonized clinical and biomarker information. This data gap is especially important as AI becomes increasingly central to Alzheimer’s research, because AI-driven tools require high-quality, well-characterized datasets to generate meaningful insights. By collecting longitudinal speech data across diverse populations and linking that data to biomarker-confirmed diagnoses and clinical outcomes, SpeechDx is generating a gold-standard dataset to support the training and validation of AI-driven tools that can help predict cognitive decline.
“Digital voice has enormous potential as an early detection signal for Alzheimer’s, and we need robust datasets to be able to validate that signal,” said Aishwarya Sukumar, Associate Director, Health and Life Sciences, at Gates Ventures. “SpeechDx is exactly the kind of collaborative effort the field needs because it brings together longitudinal speech, clinical, and biomarker data at the scale required to train and validate meaningful AI tools. The dataset has already been licensed by Siemens Healthineers and Callyope, and we hope to see additional partners use this resource to accelerate the development of validated speech-based markers. By investing in this foundation now, we can help advance a new generation of digital tools that identify risk earlier, guide more timely intervention, and move the field closer to precision medicine.”
About The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF)
Founded in 1998 by Leonard A. and Ronald S. Lauder, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is dedicated to rapidly accelerating the development of drugs to prevent, treat, and cure Alzheimer’s disease. The ADDF is the only public charity solely focused on funding the development of drugs for Alzheimer’s, employing a venture philanthropy model to support research in academia and the biotech industry. The ADDF’s leadership and contributions to the field have played a pivotal role in bringing the first Alzheimer’s PET scan (Amyvid®) and blood test (PrecivityAD®) to market, as well as fueling the current robust and diverse drug pipeline. Through the generosity of its donors, the ADDF has awarded nearly $400 million to fund 792 Alzheimer’s drug development, biomarker, and prevention programs in 21 countries. To learn more, please visit: http://www.alzdiscovery.org/.
About the Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA)
The Diagnostics Accelerator, launched in July 2018, is a $150 million global research initiative founded by ADDF Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus Leonard A. Lauder and Bill Gates to develop novel biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The DxA is dedicated to accelerating the development of affordable and accessible biomarkers to aid in diagnosis and advance the clinical development of more targeted treatments. Through translational research awards and access to consulting support from industry experts, this program will challenge, assist and fund the research community in both academia and industry to develop novel peripheral and digital biomarkers.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-alzheimers–dementia-paper-highlights-speechdxs-role-in-advancing-ai-driven-tools-for-earlier-alzheimers-detection-and-risk-assessment-302806454.html
SOURCE Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation
