Genomics Research

The Banner Alzheimer's Instute (BAI) enjoys an especially close working relationship with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), located just a half mile away in Phoenix, Arizona. Indeed, the BAI’s executive director also serves as the clinical director of the neurogenomics division at TGen.

Banner Alzheimer's Institute, TGen and other Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium researchers have made important scientific contributions to the genomic study of Alzheimer's disease:

• They reported the first “genome-wide association study” of Alzheimer's disease, discovered several possible Alzheimer's disease susceptibility genes, and established the precedent of releasing their data to the public to support additional research studies.
• They are now extending this work to the study of more than 2,000 clinically and neuropathologically characterized expired brain donors with and without Alzheimer's disease.
• They reported the first ‘genome-wide association study of normal human memory, discovered a gene that accounts for the variation in normal human memory and a new class of promising memory-enhancing treatments, which improve memory in aged rats.
• They reported the genes that are preferentially turned on and off in neurons from expired Alzheimer's disease patients, how they are related to the brain regions preferentially affected by Alzheimer's disease, and how they are related to the development of one of neurofibrillary tangles, a characteristic microscopic feature of Alzheimer's disease.
• They continue to refine the “next generation sequencing methods” used to read the three billion letters in each person’s genetic alphabet and analyse the interactions among different genes.
• They have showed how brain imaging measurements could be used to evaluate genetic and non-genetic modifiers of Alzheimer's disease risk, and used this technique to support the role of higher mid-life cholesterol levels, higher blood pressure, and several implicated genes in the predisposition to Alzheimer's disease.
• They will assist the BAI in its effort to rapidly evaluate presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease treatments in cognitively normal people at increased genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease.