# African Ancestry and the Genomic Architecture of AD and Other Common Neurodegenerative Disease Neuropathologies

> **NIH NIH R01** · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $2,292,833

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The proposed study, African Ancestry and the Genomic Architecture of AD and Other Common
Neurodegenerative Disease Neuropathologies, is in response to PAR-15-356. To be called the Study of
Ancestry and Neurodegenerative Diseases (SAND), the proposal is highly responsive to the RFA whose
funding purpose is to support projects in cognitive epidemiology and genetics/genomics relevant to AD,
especially projects enhancing the power of multiethnic cohort studies, exploring trends in the risk of AD and
their explanation via putative risk and protective factors, and by collecting and sequencing DNA samples from
well characterized cases and controls. The overall goal of SAND is to identify genomic variants of African and
European Ancestry associated with AD and other common neurodegenerative disease pathologies, including:
cerebrovascular disease, Lewy body disease, TDP-43, and hippocampal sclerosis. We will leverage a unique
resource to procure post-mortem data on brain pathologies, and genomic data, from 10,000 admixed Brazilian
brains. In an innovative series of admixture analyses applying cutting edge genomic approaches, we will
characterize the entire genome for African, European, and Native Brazilian Ancestry. Aim 1 will use 6000
brains in a discovery GWAS, followed by replication in Aim 2 with 4000 additional brains, and a joint analyses
of all 10,000. Additional analyses will determine the relevance of the variants that emerge to clinical dementia
among the same 10,000 persons. Translational Aims 3 and 4 will extend the findings to North Americans by
examining the relation of the genomic variants to AD in African Americans and non-Latino Whites from the
USA. Additional analyses will leverage available neuropathologic and neuroimaging data from the USA for
further extension of the findings. The proposed study brings together a unique team of neurologists,
epidemiologists, neuropathologists, geneticists, statisticians, and geriatricians from the USA and Faculty of
Medicine at the University of São Paulo to conduct a study that is simply not possible in the USA. The study
will deliver novel genomic variants associated with the pathologies of the five most common causes of
dementia. By leveraging neuropathologic traits, the approach can target the full spectrum of each disease from
asymptomatic to clinically demented. Finding additional genomic variants related to neuropathologic traits of
African and European ancestry will greatly facilitate our understanding of the complex processes that lead to
dementia and have a strong and sustained effect on the field.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10454091
- **Project number:** 5R01AG054058-04
- **Recipient organization:** RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID ALAN BENNETT
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $2,292,833
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-15 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10454091

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10454091, African Ancestry and the Genomic Architecture of AD and Other Common Neurodegenerative Disease Neuropathologies (5R01AG054058-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10454091. Licensed CC0.

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