Grant: Operating Grant: Alzheimer Society Research Program - NI Grants

Late-onset neurodegenerative diseases, of which the most prevalent is Alzheimer’s disease, affect millions of individuals worldwide and present a substantial burden of care to their families and health care systems. These disorders are cause by an interplay of hundreds of genes and lifestyle/environmental factors. Although traditionally thought of as disorders that affect the brain, there is emerging evidence that multiple biological systems, including the heart and immune system contribute to neurodegenerative diseases. Our study will answer the question: can we use genetic information within a computational framework using large- scale datasets to pinpoint the biological pathways related to the heart and immune system that influence Alzheimer’s disease onset or the onset of another neurodegenerative disorder? We will use powerful computational and bioinformatics approaches with large datasets to interrogate the genetic relationships between the heart and the immune system on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. We will use large-scale cohorts in which the genetic factors contributing to Alzheimer’s disease have been studied alongside additional large-scale cohorts in which heart and immune system functioning have been interrogated.