ALISON M GOATE
Commenting on the development of blood tests that can predict the onset of Alsheimer's Disease and its implication for having political process participants who will contract the disease. It is not only that Alzheimer’s patients die, but these who are still alive, for the most part, are unable to express themselves or partake of the normal political process.
Biography Dr. Alison Goate is a Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of the Center on Alzheimer's Disease. Her laboratory studies the molecular genetics of dementias and addiction in human populations. Multi-Disciplinary Training Areas Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology [BSP], Genetics and Genomic Sciences [GGS], Neuroscience [NEU] Education BSc, Hons, University of Bristol DPhil, Linacre College, University of Oxford Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Neurology, University College London Postdoctoral Research Fellow, St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, Imperial College Awards 2012 Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science 2005 Carl & Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award 1994 Senior Investigator Award, Metropolitan Life Foundation 1994 St. Louis Academy of Science Innovation Award 1993 Zenith Award, Alzheimer's Association 1993 Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer's disease research 1989- Royal Society University Research Fellow Research Research in our laboratory focuses on dementia (Alzheimer's disease & frontotemporal dementia) and addiction (alcohol dependence). In each of these projects our goal is to understand the molecular basis of disease in order to identify novel targets for therapeutic development. We use genetic and genomic approaches to identify susceptibility alleles, this work includes genome wide association studies and whole genome/exome sequencing in families multiply affected by disease and in case control cohorts. We have also pioneered the use of endophenotypes to uncover both risk and protective alleles in both our Alzheimer's disease and our alcoholism studies. We have developed induced pluripotent stem cells from individuals with known genetic causes of disease in order to model the effects of these mutations in disease relevant cell types. Functional studies are being undertaken to understand the role of phospholipase D3 variants in Alzheimer's Disease risk, tau mutations in frontotemporal dementia and alpha 5 nicotinic receptor variants in addiction.
