Resolving Complex Haplotypes Implicated in Alzheimer’s and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases

Mayo Clinic
August 26, 2020
 

Dr. Mark T. W. Ebbert

Alzheimer’s disease is genetically complex with no meaningful therapies or pre-symptomatic disease diagnostics. Most of the genes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease do not have a known functional mutation, meaning there are no known molecular mechanisms to help understand disease etiology.

In this webinar, Mark T. W. Ebbert of the Mayo Clinic will discuss his team’s work toward identifying functional structural mutations that drive disease in order to facilitate a meaningful therapy and pre-symptomatic disease diagnostic.

Some of the genes and regions implicated in Alzheimer’s disease are genomically complex and cannot be resolved with short-read sequencing technologies. These regions include MAPT, CR1, and the histocompatibility complex (including the HLA genes).

Dr. Ebbert will share now the Saphyr system from Bionano Genomics resolves full haplotypes for these complex Alzheimer’s disease regions, as well as regions directly involved in other diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Parkinson’s disease.