Femke Bouwman, MD, PhD, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, outlines some of the challenges hindering the development of biomarkers for diagnosis and disease monitoring in Alzheimer’s disease. As well as a lack of funding, the need for long longitudinal studies to reliably identify biomarkers is a major hurdle. Alzheimer’s disease begins many years before patients begin to experience dementia symptoms, so long-term studies are crucial to identify a biomarker that detects Alzheimer’s in its early stages. This interview took place during the European Academy of Neurology 2021 congress.