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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

rare genetic variant, Alzheimer's disease, SNPs

College

Life Sciences

Department

Biology

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the top 10 causes of death in the world and the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, with 5.5 million people diagnosed with the disease. Alzheimer’s cannot be cured, prevented or slowed. Most research with Alzheimer’s disease has been done on SNPs that have a relatively high frequency in the population this has helped facilitate researchers in finding a broad genetic pathway in the development of Alzheimer’s disease (Naj et al. 2011; Harold et al. 2009). Our research will focus on a very rare SNP, with a much lower frequency than previously has been studied. Finding rare variants that influence disease risk will help push forward research on Alzheimer’s disease and take us closer to an adequate cure or prevention. One of the most important aspects of finding this rare SNP is the ability we have to track the genetic inheritance of the SNP in families. It will help us to understand the significance of the SNP on the progression, protection, and development of Alzheimer’s disease. If there is a strong correlation between the SNP and Alzheimer’s then it can provide a greater understanding of the disease and aid researchers in finding a cure.

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