Dr. Nicholas Ashton is a world leader in the development, validation and use of fluid biomarkers, including cerebrospinal fluid and blood tests, in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.
He is the senior director of the Banner Research Fluid Biomarker Program. Dr. Ashton is advancing biomarker research, working closely with academic and industry researchers inside Arizona and around the world. The program is establishing a destination center for the development and use of cerebrospinal fluid and blood-based biomarkers in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.
This program includes two laboratories at Banner Sun Health Research Institute and involves researchers from that campus and Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. The biomarker discovery laboratory will develop, optimize and validate new spinal fluid and blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases, including home-based tests. This sets the stage for the widespread use of blood tests in research studies, treatment and prevention trials, and the clinical setting.
This lab will provide a state-of-the-art resource for the performance of rapid, rigorous and high-throughput resource biological fluid assays for academic and industry researchers to advance the scientific understanding, treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases and leverage the latest immunoassay and mass spectroscopy platforms, reagents, and methods.
Dr. Ashton received his Ph.D. in 2017 from King’s College London in the group of Professor Simon Lovestone and has been an associate professor in the group of Henrik Zetterberg and Kaj Blennow at University of Gothenburg, Sweden since 2019. Dr. Nicholas Ashton has a decade of experience in biofluid analysis and assay development for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, which ranges from discovery mass spectrometry methods to ultra-sensitive immunoassays.
He has published more than 200 original research articles in field of fluid biomarkers. Dr. Ashton was awarded the Queen of Sweden Prize to a Young Alzheimer Researcher for his contribution dementia research in 2021. In addition, he received the Viola Bergqvist award for mentorship in 2022. At the age of 36, Dr. Ashton was listed amongst the world’s most highly cited researchers and again the following year (Clarivate 2023 and 2024).
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