University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Genetic Regulation Of Tmem106b In The Pathogenesis Of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Michael Gallagher University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Genetics Commons, Molecular Biology Commons, and the Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons Recommended Citation Gallagher, Michael, "Genetic Regulation Of Tmem106b In The Pathogenesis Of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2294. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2294 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2294 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Genetic Regulation Of Tmem106b In The Pathogenesis Of Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases are an emerging global health crisis, with the projected global cost of dementia alone expected to exceed $1 trillion, or >1% of world GDP, by 2018. However, there are no disease-modifying treatments for the major neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a better understanding of the pathophysiology underlying these diseases. While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ~200 genetic ariantsv that are associated with risk of developing neurodegenerative disease, the biological mechanisms underlying these associations are largely unknown. This dissertation investigates the mechanisms by which common genetic variation at TMEM106B, a GWAS-identified risk locus for FTLD, influences disease risk. First, using genetic and clinical data from thirty American and European medical centers, I demonstrate that the TMEM106B locus acts as a genetic modifier of a common Mendelian form of FTLD.