About DISCERN™

DISCERN™ is the world’s first easy to administer test that can accurately identify Alzheimer’s Disease even at the earliest stages of onset by testing for the presence of 3 key proprietary biomarkers, unique to AD. It enables healthcare providers a definitive diagnosis of AD versus other forms of dementia and empowers them to enact a plan of care and a pathway to prepare for the future.

Easily administered, DISCERN™ requires a small skin sample taken by a certified healthcare provider. DISCERN™ is the only test that can provide clinicians a diagnosis with 95% certainty whether a patient has Alzheimer’s Disease or not.

The DISCERN™ story began with Dr. Daniel Alkon, who, as a new graduate of Cornell Medical School and a new employee at NIH, found himself intrigued by the question; “what comprises a memory?”.

He set out to establish answers to this question because he believed that if one could understand the physics and chemistry that comprised the mechanisms for memory storage, it would be possible to enhance, restore or modify memories – impacting a broad range of neurologic and psychiatric abnormalities.

Dr. Alkon spent 30 years researching neuroscience and memory at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Medical Director in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and as Chief of the Laboratory of Adaptive Systems.

Through the formation of Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute – created by Rockefeller IV in WV, Dr. Alkon and his team were presented with the perfect opportunity to pursue scientific research on memory and its nuanced intricacies. Later, they were able to do a series of studies and perform clinical trials in humans. This led to the pursuit of therapeutic pathways and, ultimately, to the creation of the 3 key proprietary biomarkers that are the foundation of the DISCERN™ test. These biomarkers can determine the level of synaptic loss in the brain before the onset of amyloid plaques or tangles. Each biomarker plays a role in providing extreme accuracy in determining the presence or absence of AD in a patient.

SYNAPS Dx operates out of the Greencourt Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art facility located in North Bethesda, MD. SYNAPS Dx is the exclusive licensee of the worldwide patent portfolio covering the biomarker technology.