FunGen-AD in the News

There is emerging evidence that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects peripheral tissues as well as neuronal tissue, but studies focused on the impact of AD on peripheral tissue are limited. FunGen-AD researcher Hugo Bellen and a team headed by Hongjie Li at Baylor College of Medicine profiled the transcriptome of AD fly models to analyze the […]

Blood-based biomarkers offer a way to diagnose and track Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression. AD-related biomarkers that go beyond amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau are needed. FunGen-AD-supported researcher Carlos Cruchaga from Washington University School of Medicine was part of an international group of researchers who conducted a large-scale plasma proteomic analysis to identify proteins associated with […]

The protein clusterin (CLU) was identified in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) nearly 30 years ago; however, its role in AD has not been established, particularly whether it is neuroprotective, pathogenic, or has another role. Most studies focused on CLU in AD have used mouse models or studied CLU’s role outside of the brain.A team of researchers, […]

FunGen-AD investigators from Baylor College of Medicine led by Juan Botas including Morgan Stephens, Ismael Al-Ramahi, and Joshua Shulman integrated Alzheimer’s disease (AD) genome-wide association studies (GWAS) data with multiple computational approaches to identify genes that were more likely involved in AD. The group nominated potential AD risk genes based on transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) […]

Single-cell sequencing technologies are used to understand the complexities of health and disease. A critical step for analyzing single-cell data is clustering cells based on their gene expression profiles to identify distinct cell types. Current clustering tools can be arbitrary and introduce biases, which can lead to overclustering (cells are clustered into many meaningless groups) […]

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 […]