Our centre is proud to have supported Shimaa Adel Heikal’s project; she successfully defended her thesis less than a month ago. This achievement embodies the programme’s ambition: to train a new generation of committed researchers, driven by scientific collaborations of the highest calibre, rooted in African institutions and open to international engagement.In Egypt, neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia remain understudied, despite the progressive ageing of the population and the major public health challenges they pose. The early identification of biomarkers associated with the early stages of dementia is now a key challenge in improving diagnosis, patient monitoring and understanding of the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in populations that remain under-represented in international research.Shimaa has carried out pioneering work that has contributed to the establishment of the Egyptian Dementia Network (EDN), the first national dementia research registry in an Arab-African country. By combining clinical, biological and demographic data, her project is helping to identify new biomarkers for the early detection of dementia, whilst establishing a national research infrastructure that will support future discoveries and improve patient care. As the research progressed, the project moved from a pilot phase to a fully operational national infrastructure, supported by a network of six clinical centres across Egypt and the implementation of standardised protocols for data collection and analysis. The next steps include extending the analyses to the entire cohort, validating the identified biomarkers, and developing machine learning approaches to improve disease prediction and monitoring.Funding100 PhDs for Africa is a programme stemming from the “Excellence in Africa” initiative developed by UM6P and the EXAF Centre (EPFL).