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

Electronic versions

Documents

  • Aled Jones

    Research areas

  • Alzheimer's disease, Drosophila melanogaster, network theory, genomics, proteins, genes, human

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.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
Supervisors/Advisors
Thesis sponsors
  • Bangor University
Award date7 Sept 2022