Genetics and Omics

Now is an exceptional time to be a genetic and/or biological epidemiologist approaching dementia including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Cohorts are substantially larger, better curated and more carefully phenotyped in greater detail than ever before, particularly in terms of genetics and different types of -omics (transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, etc.). There is a wider range than ever before of cutting-edge statistical methodologies for improving our molecular level mechanistic understanding, and for identifying potential biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets. There are however serious challenges involved in realising the promise of these developments. The genetics and -omics working group will develop resources, stimulate discussions and foster collaborations between researchers using these data, and help us to get from data to usable information which benefits public health. The working group will work on available large-scale genetics and genomics datasets across dementia to investigate disease subtyping, prediction, and progression. The working group will combine the -omics data for enhancing our understanding of functional implications of identified genetic associations.