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Alzheimer's Disease Working Group Leadership

PeVa_IMG_8009_Vu_Communicatie_OAJ_Danielle_Posthuma

Danielle Posthuma, PhD

Co-Chair

Core Analytical Group

ole_andreassen

Ole Andreassen, MD

Co-Chair

Core Analytical Group

Work with us!

If you have questions regarding the PGC Alzheimer Disease workgroup or projects that are currently being conducted, please contact the workgroup chairs.

For any questions or ideas related to research dissemination (e.g., via this webpage, social media, blogs, press outlets), please contact the workgroup outreach liaison.

If you have questions about how to access summary statistics or genotype-level data, or are interested to submit a secondary analysis proposal, please contact the workgroup data access committee representative Shahram Bahrami.

About Us

Our History

The Alzheimer’s disease Working Group (PGC-ALZ) is a relatively young group that was initiated in 2016 by Danielle Posthuma and Ole Andreassen. This collaborative effort shares the main ambition to identify novel genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease to contribute to better understanding of the underlying disease pathology that is required for the development of improved treatment in the future. After the first two years of intensive data collection, by gathering public genetic data and launching new collaborations, the first GWAS paper was published early 2019 (PMID 30617256).

Our Motivation

  1. Discover novel genetic risk factors and identify potential drug targets

  2. Work closely with scientist that functionally follow up well defined risk loci

  3. Characterize the genetic architecture, such as genetic heterogeneity

  4. Work closely with clinicians to translate the findings to clinical setting for precision medicine application (polygenic risk prediction tools)

  5. Increase our knowledge about trans-ancestry genetic risk factors - beyond Europeans

  6. Facilitate the collaboration between international genetics Alzheimer’s disease consortia

  7. Constantly increase the number of participants to improve power

Get Involved!

The PGC-ALZ members stay connected and updated with regular conference calls. If you are also interested in becoming a PGC-ALZ member, we welcome your participation and are eager to collaborate with investigators who might be willing to share raw genotypic data or effect sizes. If you are interested in learning more about our group, please contact Ole Andreassen. 

Publications

Wightman DP, Savage JE, Tissink E, Romero C, Jansen IE, Posthuma D. The genetic overlap between Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lewy body dementia, and Parkinson's disease. Neurobiol Aging. 2023 Jul;127:99-112. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.03.004. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197458023000507?via%3Dihub

 

Fominykh V, Shadrin AA, Jaholkowski PP, Bahrami S, Athanasiu L, Wightman DP, Uffelmann E, Posthuma D, Selbæk G, Dale AM, Djurovic S, Frei O, Andreassen OA. Shared genetic loci between Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis: Crossroads between neurodegeneration and immune system. Neurobiol Dis. 2023 Jul;183:106174. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2023.106174. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969996123001894?via%3Dihub

 

Wightman DP, Savage JE, de Leeuw CA, Jansen IE, Posthuma D. Rare variant aggregation in 148,508 exomes identifies genes associated with proxy dementia. Sci Rep. 2023 Feb 7;13(1):2179. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-29108-8. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-29108-8

 

Wightman DP, Jansen IE, Savage JE, Shadrin AA, Bahrami S, Holland D, Rongve A, Børte S, Winsvold BS, Drange OK, Martinsen AE, Skogholt AH, Willer C, Bråthen G, Bosnes I, Nielsen JB, Fritsche LG, Thomas LF, Pedersen LM, Gabrielsen ME, Johnsen MB, Meisingset TW, Zhou W, Proitsi P, Hodges A, Dobson R, Velayudhan L; 23andMe Research Team, Sealock JM, Davis LK, Pedersen NL, Reynolds CA, Karlsson IK, Magnusson S, Stefansson H, Thordardottir S, Jonsson PV, Snaedal J, Zettergren A, Skoog I, Kern S, Waern M, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Stordal E, Hveem K, Zwart JA, Athanasiu L, Selnes P, Saltvedt I, Sando SB, Ulstein I, Djurovic S, Fladby T, Aarsland D, Selbæk G, Ripke S, Stefansson K, Andreassen OA, Posthuma D. A genome-wide association study with 1,126,563 individuals identifies new risk loci for Alzheimer's disease. Nat Genet. 2021 Sep;53(9):1276-1282. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00921-z

 

Jansen IE, Savage JE, Watanabe K, Bryois J, Williams DM, Steinberg S, Sealock J, Karlsson IK, Hägg S, Athanasiu L, Voyle N, Proitsi P, Witoelar A, Stringer S, Aarsland D, Almdahl IS, Fred Andersen F, Bergh S, Bettella F, Bjornsson S, Brækhus A, Bråthen G, de Leeuw CA, Desikan RS, Djurovic S, Dumitrescu L, Fladby T, Homan T, Jonsson PV, Kiddle SJ, Rongve KA, Saltvedt I, Sando SB, Selbæk G, Shoai M, Skene N, Snaedal J, Stordal E, Ulstein ID, Wang Y, White LR, Hardy J, Hjerling-Leffler J, Sullivan PF, van der Flier WM, Dobson R, Davis LK, Stefansson H, Stefansson K, Pedersen NL, Stephan Ripke S, Andreassen OA, Posthuma D. Genetic meta-analysis identifies 9 novel loci and functional pathways for Alzheimer’s disease risk. Nature Genetics. 2019 Mar;51(3):404-413 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0311-9

 

Drange OK, Smeland OB, Shadrin AA, Finseth PI, Witoelar A, Frei O (2019). Genetic overlap between Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar disorder implicates the MARK2 and VAC14 genes. Frontiers in Neuroscience doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2019.00220

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