Defining Genetic, Polygenic and Environmental Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease using multiple powerful cohorts, focussed Epigenetics and Stem cell metabolomics

The PERADES Programme (Defining Genetic, Polygenic and Environmental Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, using multiple powerful cohorts, focussed Epigenetics and Stem cell metabolomics) will find new susceptibility genes for early and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. It will take all genetic findings and test for relationships with life- style/environmental factors, using the largest ever sample of epidemiological cohorts, comprising over 500,000 individuals from around the world. Researchers from eleven countries will take part in the study, led by Professor Julie Williams CBE (Cardiff University, UK), alongside group leaders Professor Cornelia van Duijn, Dr Jean-Charles Lambert, Dr Dominique Campi- on, Professor John van Swieten and Professor John Hardy. Exploiting new statistical approaches to genetic data, researchers will calculate polygenic risk scores and use these to identify individuals at both high and low risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. They will also examine risk profiles in potential pathways to the disease, including immunity, and study their interaction with environmental risk factors. PERADES will pave the way for the development of preventative therapies, and identify new biomarkers of the disease in its earliest phases. It will also explore epigenetic contributions to disease and produce stem-cell re- sources from individuals with specific risk profiles, for use by the wider scientific community