New genomics studies from LIGA and Münster

23. April 2024

Since the publication of the Genome Medicine GWAS, three independent projects co-led by LIGA have recently been completed and published, spanning complex genomics to immunological investigations. All three were spearheaded by members of the Translational Molecular Epidemiology Group at University of Münster, led by former LIGA member Prof. Christina M. Lill. The first paper, spearheaded by former LIGA PhD student Dr. Olena Ohlei, published in Brain Communications, features a comprehensive genome-wide meta-analysis of short-tandem repeats (STRs), utilizing advanced genotype imputation to identify novel genetic risk factors for Parkinson’s disease. The second study, spearheaded by former LIGA MSc student Dr. Laura Deecke, published in Alzheimers & Dementia, pivots to immunology in the context of neurodegeneration, demonstrating that there is no significant increase of CD8+ TEMRA cells in the blood of healthy adults who carry a high genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease. This finding helps to refine our understanding of peripheral immune signatures prior to disease onset. The third publication, also first-authored by Dr. Deecke and published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, explores dermatological genetics, revealing how specific variants in the TERT gene increase the occurrence of solar lentigines by modifying telomerase expression exclusively in the skin. In addition to former LIGA members Drs. Ohlei, Deecke and Lill, current LIGA investigators Drs. Dobricic, Gmelin and Bertram contributed data, analyses, and expertise to various aspects of these studies.