Alzheimer’s disease is a leading cause of disability and mortality among older adults, yet many of the mechanisms underlying the disease remain unclear.
To help address these gaps, Jiebiao Wang, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics and health data science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and of clinical and translational science at Pitt School of Medicine, has received an R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.
The five-year award—totaling approximately $3 million—will fund the project, “Statistical methods for spatial proteogenomics data in Alzheimer’s disease,” a collaboration with Jill Glausier, PhD, and Kenneth Fish, PhD, both associate professors of psychiatry at Pitt School of Medicine, and Julia Wrobel, PhD, and Jian Hu, PhD, both of Emory University.
Spatial proteogenomics—which was named Method of the Year by Nature Methods in 2024—allows researchers to measure genes and proteins while mapping their locations within tissue, providing a more detailed picture of how cells are organized and interact.
“Where cells are located and how they interact with neighboring cells can provide important information about what is happening in the brain,” Wang said. “These technologies give us an opportunity to investigate how those patterns may change in Alzheimer’s disease.”
Wang and collaborators will develop new statistical and computational methods to more accurately identify individual cells in brain tissue, examine which cells tend to occur near one another and analyze patterns of gene activity. Researchers will compare these patterns in brain tissue from people with Alzheimer’s disease and controls.
“By addressing critical gaps, this research will advance the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and uncover potential novel therapeutic targets,” Wang said. “Our results—which will include annotated datasets and open-source software—will be shared publicly, creating opportunities for collaboration and accelerating progress in the field.”
— Ava Dzurenda