Korea's First 'Standardized Dementia Cohort' Completed... Dementia Research Infrastructure Reaches World-Class Level [Reading Science]

Standardized Data from 1,765 Participants Across 29 Hospitals
Full-Scale Resource Sharing for Researchers Launched via DPK

The achievement of establishing a standardized dementia cohort, which addresses the long-standing issue of non-standardized data in domestic dementia research, has been made public. With the nationwide collection and refinement of high-quality clinical data and human biospecimens now fully accessible, experts believe this development lays the groundwork for significant advances in dementia research and new drug development in Korea.

The Korea Dementia Research Center, a project jointly promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, announced on January 7 that it has established the country’s first standardized dementia research cohort through the Dementia Research Information Integration and Linkage System (DPK) and the Translational Research Registry (TRR).

Resource allocation process through the Dementia Overcoming Research and Development Project Group DPK platform. Provided by Seoul National University

This large-scale collaborative study was led by Inhee Mook, head of the Korea Dementia Research Center, with researcher Haengjun Kim (co-first author), and included key domestic dementia experts from Bundang Seoul National University Hospital, Samsung Medical Center, Hanyang University, Yonsei University, and others. The results are regarded as evidence that the standardization level of Korea’s dementia research infrastructure and the quality of its data have reached a world-class standard.

Establishment of Korea’s First 'Minimum Common Dataset'... Setting a Standard for Dementia Research

To address the issues of differing data formats and quality variances among research institutions, the Korea Dementia Research Center established the country’s first 'Minimum Common Dataset (MCD)' for dementia research.

Based on this, the center collaborated with 29 hospitals nationwide (across 64 medical departments) to build a standardized dementia cohort of 1,765 individuals, including cognitively normal controls, patients with mild cognitive impairment, and those with Alzheimer’s disease dementia, all selected and tracked using the same criteria. The research is being expanded with the goal of recruiting 3,000 participants by 2028. This cohort is considered the largest precision medicine-based standardized dementia cohort in Asia.

The collected data comprises multi-modal information, including: ▲clinical information ▲comprehensive neuropsychological assessments ▲brain MRI ▲amyloid PET imaging ▲blood samples. Notably, the team standardized imaging equipment and diagnostic criteria, and applied deep learning-based facial defacing technology to simultaneously ensure personal data protection and data utility.

From 'Accumulating Data' to 'Utilizing Data'... A New Era for Dementia Data Utilization

The core achievement of this project is not merely building a dataset, but completing an infrastructure that can be immediately utilized in research settings. The project team manages all collected human biospecimens and clinical data through the Dementia Research Information Integration and Linkage System (DPK), and has made it possible for any domestic dementia researcher to apply for resource allocation via the platform.

After review, de-identified and quality-verified blood samples and data are provided to researchers. This is expected to significantly reduce the time and cost individual researchers spend on patient recruitment and data collection. This infrastructure is anticipated to accelerate the development of early diagnostic technologies and personalized therapeutics for dementia.

Cover of "Alzheimer’s & Dementia (Vol. 22, No. 1)" published in January 2026. Alzheimer’s & Dementia homepage

Inhee Mook stated, "Through this achievement, we have created an environment where researchers can focus on creative studies such as biomarker discovery and drug development, rather than being burdened by data collection."

The results of this study were published in the January 2026 issue of Alzheimer's & Dementia, a leading international journal in the field, under the title "Korea's First Standardized Dementia Cohort and Integrated Research Platform." Alzheimer's & Dementia is an international academic journal that covers clinical and basic research findings on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and is known for its rigorous verification of the reliability and clinical applicability of research data.

This publication in an international journal demonstrates that the government’s ongoing investment in R&D has led to the establishment of a world-class dementia research platform. It is expected to play a key role in strengthening the foundation for independent domestic dementia research and expanding global collaborative research in the future.