Molecular mechanisms that contribute to risk of Alzheimer's disease in
African-American patients
 
   Lead Investigator:    Nilufer Taner
   Institution      :    Mayo Clinic
   E-Mail           :    Taner.Nilufer@mayo.edu
   Proposal ID      :    882



   Proposal Description:
   The overarching aim is to identify the molecular mechanisms that contribute to risk of Alzheimer's disease in African-American patients. The approach is to perform combined -omics studies including transcriptome wide gene expression, genotyping and epigenetic studies to identify genes and pathways that influence risk and/or AD endophenotypes in this racial group. Our group has performed expression GWAS (eQTL), expression profiling and epigenetic studies to identify and/or characterize genes implicated in risk of AD or other neurodegenerative diseases. The majority of these studies were conducted in Caucasian cohorts. It is clear that these studies need to be expanded to non-Caucasians. Given their increased risk for AD and the knowledge gap in this area, we aim to conduct similar studies in African-Americans. We propose to study brain and blood expression, epigenetic marks combined with genetic data to achieve this aim. The data and samples at NACC, NCRAD and ADCs will be explored for this purpose.