Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs)
Our research focuses on risk factors, natural history, treatment response, and patient outcomes in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but also Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and dementias.
We are especially interested in the complex interplay between environmental risk factors and biological pathways like metabolism and immune responses in these diseases. We also collaborate with researchers in Sweden and elsewhere on research projects on other neurological conditions like neuropathy, late-onset epilepsy, and myasthenia gravis.
Ongoing projects:
Air pollution and ALS: To identify and evaluate air pollution as a potential risk and prognostic factor for ALS, focusing on understanding alterations in the expression of proteins related to oxidative stress and inflammation, the immune responses, and the gut microbiome as potential underlying mechanisms (funded by the US CDC).
Infections and ALS: To evaluate infections as potential risk and prognostic factors for ALS, focusing on understanding their interactions with individual genetic susceptibility, inflammation, and gut microbiome, using the extensive data and biospecimens collected in the unique Swedish national ALS registry and a case-control study of ALS in Stockholm (funded by Swedish Research Council).
LEGENNDS: A multinational study of epidemiological and genetic data across the countries of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, and Denmark to characterize the natural history and familial aggregation of neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. We also explore genetic and non-genetic pathways underlying the link between neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders (funded by the US NIH).
GARDEN: Leveraging pre-existing cohorts with individual-level data on genotyping and various neurodegeneration markers, GARDEN aims to examine the relationship between genetic liability for autism and neurodegeneration, through comparing: 1) the risk of cognitive decline and its progression to dementia; 2) measures of brain aging; and 3) the burden of known risk factors and antecedent conditions for dementia between individuals with different genetic liability for autism (funded by Swedish Research Council).
TAGCNINE: A multidisciplinary approach to test the central hypothesis that C9ORF72 mutation causes ALS/frontotemporal dementia via combined loss of physiological and gain-of-toxic functions that converge on the endolysosome system and the generation of extracellular vesicles (funded by European Joint Program on Neurodegenerative Diseases).