# ConProject-001

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $1,197,976

## Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is twice as prevalent in AA and 1.5 times in LA populations compared to Caucasians.
Despite this, non-Caucasians are vastly under-represented in AD research including clinical trials and genetic
studies. Further, there are no multi-omics studies to date in diverse populations. Based on the rationale that
multi-omics studies can identify disease-relevant pathways and therapeutic targets, AMP-AD Target Discovery
and Preclinical Validation Project was launched. This effort led to the generation and analysis of RNAsequencing
(RNAseq) based transcriptome, whole genome sequence (WGS), proteome, metabolome and
epigenome data on >2,500 brain samples from Caucasian patients with AD and non-AD neuropathologies, as
well as unaffected controls. This vast amount of data has been made available to the research community.
These data have also been utilized to identify or validate potential risk mechanisms in AD and other
neurodegenerative diseases and led to the data-driven identification and nomination of over 500 key driver
genes/candidate targets for AD. Despite these advances for Caucasians, the multi-omic landscape of diverse
AD, non-AD and control brains are unknown. Multi-omics profiling of diverse cohorts is essential for the
discovery of the full spectrum of disease-relevant therapeutic targets that will be of utility to all populations
affected with AD. In this supplement, we propose to generate and analyze RNAseq data from 3 brain regions
of 331 AA or LA patients that represent the spectrum of AD and related disorders. The objective of this
proposal is to identify pathways, molecules and potential therapeutic targets of AD in these diverse cohorts
utilizing brain transcriptome and other existing data. Comparative studies will be conducted between findings
from this proposal and those from the Caucasian cohorts within AMP-AD. These comparisons are expected to
identify both shared and population-specific AD pathways and molecules and can ultimately inform the extent
of utility for AD therapeutic targets across populations. The proposal is ‘shovel-ready’ with available samples
and data. We will leverage existing infrastructure, protocols, analytic pipelines that we and others already
established for large-scale multi-omics studies in AMP-AD. Thus, the proposed study is poised to successfully
fill the knowledge gap for disease pathways and therapeutic targets of AD for minority populations. The specific
aims are: 1) To generate a brain transcriptome map in diverse populations across the AD spectrum: We
will perform brain RNAseq in 3 brain regions (993 brain samples) to generate a detailed brain transcriptome
map in these diverse populations. 2) To identify molecular targets for AD in diverse populations: Using
data from Aim 1, we will discover differentially expressed genes and networks in AD, their behavior across
multiple brain regions and multiple pathologies and nominate a list of therapeutic targets. If funded, this study
wi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10176964
- **Project number:** 3U01AG046139-07S3
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** NILUFER ERTEKIN-TANER
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $1,197,976
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2013-09-20 → 2020-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10176964

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10176964, ConProject-001 (3U01AG046139-07S3). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10176964. Licensed CC0.

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