Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Core

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT BIOINFORMATICS AND COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY CORE The Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BCB) Core will develop and employ analytical methods to assess and align microphysiological systems (MPS) with human study data. We will characterize and standardize all MPS models through multi-omics analysis, placing these molecular profiles in the context of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia (ADRD) through alignment to large existing data sets from human studies. We will implement a precision medicine approach to link each individual cell model to the potentially contributing dysregulated processes and associated biomarkers in ADRD and map the potentially corrective responses to candidate therapeutics that modify biomarkers across multiple genetic backgrounds. To this end, we will create analytic workflows to jointly analyze multi-modal data in MPS and postmortem brains based on common origin in the ROSMAP cohort. We will work with the Administration and Data Management Core to ensure FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) distribution of all Center data on the AD Knowledge Portal and expand interactive analysis capabilities of the Model AD Explorer to include MPS models. We will complement the other components of PRECISION-AD by: (1) Deeply characterizing microphysiological systems models from 100 genetic backgrounds; (2) Determining the translational relevance of diverse microphysiological models by data- driven alignment to human study populations; and (3) Assessing the therapeutic effects of candidate treatments on molecular indicators of AD. We have assembled a team with the expertise tailored to meet these goals by integrating with other PRECISION-AD cores and the broader ADRD translational ecosystem.