Carlos Cruchaga, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, introduces several projects underway within the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) Functional Genomics Consortium (FunGen-AD). The FunGen-AD consortium are using multiple cutting edge genomics technologies and disease modelling approaches to identify the mechanisms underlying known Alzheimer’s disease variants, as well as identify new genetics-guided targets for disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. One such project involves human stem cell modeling to study microglia, particularly TREM2 and its role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk. The study will aim to identify genes and pathways associated with cerebrospinal fluid TREM2 levels and use iPSC-derived human microglia to identify the mechanisms through which these variants affect TREM2 levels and microglia function. Another major project aims to establish a comprehensive quantitative trait locus atlas using multi-tissue and multi-omics data, in order to identify functional SNPs and target cell types of numerous AD risk loci. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.
