Baylin Group - Nutritional Epidemiology and Cardiovascular Disease

Gene Expression Predictors of Ischemic Brain Injury

Principal Investigators

Sharon Kardia, Stephen Turner, Myriam Fornage

Funding Sources

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

Status

Current

About this Project

In this project we are using a functional genomic strategy based on gene expression measurements to identify genetic variants influencing MRI measures of structural brain injury(leukoaraiosis, cerebral atrophy, and ventricular volume). The project has four key objectives. Briefly, the first objective is to determine whether DNA sequence variations in gene regions previously found to influence MRI measures of structural brain injury may also have functional effects on heritable gene expression levels in immortalized lymphocytes. The second objective is to determine whether inter-individual variation in gene expression levels measured in immortalized lymphocytes is associated with MRI measures of structural brain injury before and after accounting for genetic variation. The third objective is to fine-map gene regions to determine which DNA sequence variations in putative functional genes are associated with MRI measures of structural brain injury. Finally, the fourth objective is to validate whether DNA sequence variations in the putative functional genes are associated with comparable MRI measures of structural brain injury in independent samples from the population-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.