Dr Marc Zimmermann (Fraunhofer SCAI) on the AETIONOMY project. AETIONOMY is a consortium brought together to tackle the problem of the classification of neuro-degenerative diseases. It is a Big Data Approach: A knowledge base comprising curated, re-annotated and well-organised data Modelling and Mining Workflows suited for the generation of new mechanism-hypotheses with a special focus on early dysregulation events A set of testable hypotheses on disease mechanisms of which a subset has been validated in a clinical study. The clinical study links us to the EPAD project A first version of a mechanism-based taxonomy for AD and PD providing the high level structure for a future taxonomy of neurodegenerative diseases http://www.aetionomy.eu/