{"id":3527,"date":"2026-08-27T14:41:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/?p=3527"},"modified":"2026-09-01T11:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:43:07","slug":"researchers-develop-improved-measure-of-genetic-risk-for-alzheimers-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/2026\/08\/27\/researchers-develop-improved-measure-of-genetic-risk-for-alzheimers-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Develop Improved Measure of Genetic Risk for Alzheimer\u2019s Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><strong><span>August 27, 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><span>Boston University researchers, including Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program investigator <\/span><strong><span>Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD<\/span><\/strong><span>, have developed and validated a new multi-ancestry polygenic risk score (PRS) for Alzheimer\u2019s disease that improves risk prediction across diverse ancestral populations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><span>The study, published in <\/span><em><span>Nature Genetics<\/span><\/em><span>, used genetic data from diverse populations to create a more broadly applicable measure of genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The new PRS was more predictive of an Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis than previous scores developed using primarily individuals of European ancestry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><span>Researchers also examined the relationship between the new PRS and Alzheimer\u2019s-related clinical, cognitive, imaging, biomarker, and neuropathological measures using data from several studies, including the <\/span><strong><span>Framingham Heart Study<\/span><\/strong><span>. Higher genetic risk was associated with poorer cognitive performance, reduced hippocampal volume, Alzheimer\u2019s-related biomarkers, and steeper cognitive decline among individuals with very high risk scores.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\"><span>The findings demonstrate the importance of including diverse populations in genetic research and may help improve long-term Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk prediction, clinical trial recruitment, and future personalized prevention strategies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/news-events\/articles\/2026\/researchers-develop-an-improved-measure-of-genetic-risk-for-alzheimers-disease\/\"><strong><span>Read the full story from Boston University Chobanian &amp; Avedisian School of Medicine<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>August 27, 2026 Boston University researchers, including Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program investigator Lindsay A. Farrer, PhD, have developed and validated a new multi-ancestry polygenic risk score (PRS) for Alzheimer\u2019s disease that improves risk prediction across diverse ancestral populations. The study, published in Nature Genetics, used genetic data from diverse populations to create a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22858,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[15,50,63,78,79],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3530,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3527\/revisions\/3530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/fhs-bap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}