Analysis of genomic and transcriptomic studies of Alzheimer’s Disease to identify novel pathways for study in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with a mostly unknown aetiology, that is characterised by accumulation of the abnormal proteins, amyloid-beta and microtubule associated protein tau (tau). Tau is particularly interesting due its involvement in a range of neurodegenerative disorders collectively known as tauopathies. In recent years, our understanding of the mechanisms of tauopathies has greatly expanded due to two factors: 1) the use of model organisms like Drosophila melanogaster, C. elegans and mouse have provided powerful experimental platforms to analyse the cellular and molecular events of disease, and 2) genomic and transcriptomic methodologies have identified novel targets and molecular mechanisms that can then be further tested in model organisms. This thesis builds on these developments by undertaking an analysis of published transcriptomic and genomic studies to identify novel conserved pathways and proteins that play a key role in human disease and have clear orthologues in Drosophila. In this way my study seeks to identify novel approaches to using Drosophila to provide new insights into the mechanism of neurodegenerative disease.

Date of Award	7 Sept 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Sponsors	Bangor University
Supervisor	David Shepherd (Supervisor) & Lovesha Sivanantharajah (Supervisor)