Building on its longstanding leadership in Alzheimer’s disease genetics and biomarkers, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has launched the Caribbean Omics & Genomics for Alzheimer Study (CONGAS) with the support of a five-year, $12 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The central mission of CONGAS is to understand why Alzheimer’s disproportionately affects Caribbean and Hispanic populations and identify the genetic and molecular drivers behind this disparity. Ultimately, these insights will bring scientists closer to more precise and personalized diagnostic tools and treatments and help identify new drug targets.
The collaborative project is driven by Carlos Cruchaga, PhD, the Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Professor in the Department of Psychiatry; Jorge Llibre-Guerra, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology; and Laura Ibanez, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, all at WashU Medicine. A fourth collaborator, Victoria Fernandez, PhD, began the work while at WashU Medicine and is now head of the genomics unit at ACE Alzheimer Center Barcelona in Spain.