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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers for amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau have improved Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis; however, these biomarkers only explain 20–40% of the variance in cognitive impairment in AD. FunGen-AD investigator Carlos Cruchaga at the Washington University School of Medicine and a group of international researchers analyzed CSF proteins to identify novel biomarkers of cognitive […]

Methods like single-cell transcriptomics and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide insight in how genetic mutations drive cellular and molecular changes in the brain. However, these approaches cannot identify molecular mechanisms that control brain function and disease. An article from FunGen-AD investigator Martin Kampmann and others at the University of California, San Francisco demonstrates a new […]

Manganese is an essential mineral that is part of a healthy diet, but chronic, long-term exposure to manganese through jobs like welding and mining or drinking contaminated water can lead to motor symptoms like muscle stiffness and tremors with Parkinson’s disease (PD), also known as parkinsonism. Researchers, including FunGen-AD investigators Gary Miller and Yunjia Lai […]

Research focused on identifying genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) commonly relies on postmortem brain tissue or blood samples; however, these sources provide a limited view of the disease. Post-mortem brain tissue usually represents late-stage AD, and blood is not specific to the brain. An international group of investigators, including Functional Genomics Consortium investigator Carlos […]

Tau protein accumulation is a common feature of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A publication from a group of researchers, including FunGen-AD researchers Lindsey Goodman, Hugo Bellen, and Josh Shulman from Baylor College of Medicine and the Duncan Neurological Research Institute of Texas Children’s Hospital, provides new evidence that the tau protein has protective […]

A research team including FunGen-AD researcher Philip De Jager used data from 1.6 million brain cells to characterize the cellular changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The analysis used over 400 brains from the Religious Orders Study and the Memory & Aging Project based at Rush University in Chicago. These brains were from healthy donors […]

Common variants in the ABCA7 gene are known to increase risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), particularly in Black people. Interestingly, ABCA7 variants are more strongly linked to AD in Black people than variants in the well-known APOE4 gene. FunGen-AD-funded researchers Badri Vardarajan, Caghan Kizil, and Richard Mayeux were part of an international research team […]

Blood-brain-barrier (BBB) dysfunction is a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but the underlying molecular changes associated with this dysfunction are not well understood. A group of researchers, including FunGen-AD researchers Caghan Kizil, Richard Mayeux, and Badri Vardarajan from Columbia University, focused on pericytes and astrocytes of the gliovascular unit (GVU), cells that support the […]

Previous research has shown that levels of the protein sTREM2 in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) decrease in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) compared with cognitively normal individuals; however, these sTREM2 levels are higher than normal in late-stage AD. The role of these fluctuations in AD progression is unknown. An international group of researchers, led […]

Researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, including FunGen-AD researchers Badri Vardarajan and Richard Mayeux, have identified a previously unknown genetic variant that can reduce an individual’s odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD).