Prenuvo-Enabled Research Wins 2025 Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer Award

Prenuvo, the leading whole-body MRI for proactive health screening, today announced research powered by its imaging dataset has received the prestigious 2025 Alzheimer Award from the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (JAD). The award, granted for the last 25 years, honors one of the most impactful studies advancing the field of Alzheimer’s research in the past year and was selected by the international JAD Editorial board out of 800 submissions.

The awarded study, “Exercise-Related Physical Activity Relates to Brain Volumes in 10,125 Individuals,” found that just 25 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week is linked to greater brain volume in regions vulnerable to Alzheimer’s, supporting exercise as a preventive strategy for dementia. The study used Prenuvo’s extensive normative dataset of proactive whole-body MRI scans to identify structural brain changes in asymptomatic individuals that may precede clinical signs of Alzheimer’s. The study marks a significant step toward earlier, noninvasive detection of the neurodegenerative disease.

The full list of collaborators includes: Cyrus A. Raji, Somayeh Meysami, Sam Hashemi, Saurabh Garg, Nasrin Akbari, Thanh Duc Nguyen, Ahmed Gouda, Yosef Gavriel Chodakiewitz, and Rajpaul Attariwala.

“Our findings suggest that subtle brain structure changes linked to Alzheimer’s may be detectable earlier than previously believed, especially with access to high-resolution imaging and AI tools that can segment and analyze these small structures at scale,” said lead study author Dr. Cyrus Raji, PhD, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis. “This research was facilitated by Prenuvo’s unique MRI dataset, which combines whole-body imaging with high spatial resolution, enabling a precise level of structural detail.”

While traditional Alzheimer’s diagnostics rely on PET scans and cerebrospinal fluid analysis, this study highlights how non-invasive, whole-body MRI, paired with advanced analysis using AI, can reveal early indicators of cognitive decline in large, diverse populations. Prenuvo’s anonymized imaging data allowed researchers to examine the structural brain correlates of Alzheimer’s in people without clinical symptoms, helping to push the field of early detection forward.

“Imaging-driven research can unlock earlier, more accessible ways to detect neurodegenerative disease,” said Sam Hashemi, Vice President of AI and Research at Prenuvo and study co-author. “This award underscores the potential of not just Prenuvo, but when proactive imaging using MRI and AI come together, they can reveal hidden signals in the brain that might otherwise go undetected. It points to a world where insights like these become part of routine care, not just research.”

The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease gives the Alzheimer Award annually to a lead author whose paper has significantly advanced Alzheimer’s research. The award includes a bronze medal featuring Alois Alzheimer and a $7,500 honorarium to be presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto, Canada from July 27-31st, 2025.

The full paper is available here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3233/JAD-230740

About Prenuvo:

Prenuvo makes MRI scanning for early detection of many types of cancer and many other diseases seamless and more widely accessible. Combining cutting-edge analysis technology with radiation-free and non-invasive whole-body scans, Prenuvo’s patient-centric design is optimized to assess the body holistically and in under 60 minutes, compared with the several hours it would take to achieve this level of insight from conventional MRI scans. Prenuvo’s team of 100+ radiologists specializes in whole-body MRI screenings to risk-stratify each patient report, keeping in mind healthcare complexities from the patient’s perspective, the treating clinician’s perspective, and the healthcare system’s perspective.

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Prenuvo

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