Welcome to the Belloy lab
Our research is dedicated to understanding the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. We utilize functional genomics and bioinformatics tools to analyze publicly available cohort and population data.
Specifically, our lab employs a multi-modal, big-data approach that integrates genetics, multi-omics, brain imaging (MRI and PET), endophenotypes, clinical findings, and histopathological data. This holistic approach ensures we capture the full spectrum of biologically relevant information to deepen our understanding of the disease.
Our primary goal is to identify novel genetic risk variants for Alzheimer’s disease and elucidate their molecular mechanisms. This knowledge will inform drug development and advance the field of personalized genetic medicine.
We tackle these challenges from three fundamental perspectives:
Investigating sex dimorphism in Alzheimer’s disease genetics. This involves exploring the role of sex chromosomes and conducting omics-driven research to make novel discoveries.
Understanding the influence of ancestry on Alzheimer’s disease genetics. Our focus here is on pinpointing both ancestry-specific risk factors as well as identifying genetic risk factors consistent across different ancestries.
Merging brain imaging with genetic and multi-omics data to examine disease heterogeneity and resilience. This will help identify novel drug targets for resilience to Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging generally.
The Belloy Lab is part of the Neurogenomics and Informatics (NGI) Center
![Schematic overview of R00 research project to study sex dimorphism in the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease.](https://belloylab.wustl.edu/files/2023/11/Rotating_Figure1.png)
![Novel genetic risk loci identified from largest APOE*4 and sex-stratified genome-wide association (GWA) study to date (Belloy et al. 2023).](https://belloylab.wustl.edu/files/2023/11/Rotating_Figure2.jpg)
![Race and ethnicity stratification in the risk for Alzheimer’s disease due to APOE genotype (Belloy et al. 2023). Abbreviations: Alzheimer’s disease, AD; Odds Ratio, OR; East Asian, EAS, non-Hispanic White, NHW; non-Hispanic Black, NHB; Hispanic, HISP.](https://belloylab.wustl.edu/files/2023/11/Rotating_Figure3.jpg)
![Increased Alzheimer’s disease risk due to APOE*34 in women compared to men, consistently observed across race and ethnicity groups (Belloy et al. 2023). Abbreviations: Alzheimer’s disease, AD; Odds Ratio, OR; non-Hispanic White, NHW; non-Hispanic Black, NHB; Hispanic, HISP.](https://belloylab.wustl.edu/files/2023/11/Rotating_Figure4.png)
![Unravelling the role of the X chromosome in Alzheimer's disease for the first time, while simultaneously performing the largest genetic association study of Alzheimer's disease to date! (Belloy et al. 2024)](https://belloylab.wustl.edu/files/2024/07/Rotating_Figure5.jpg)
![Sex-stratified Protein-wide Association Studies of Alzheimer's disease reveal novel risk genes and implicate metabolic diseases as a female-specific risk pathway (Reid et al., 2024)](https://belloylab.wustl.edu/files/2024/07/Rotating_Figure6.jpg)
Our lab operates with support from:
National Institutes of Aging
Join us…
The Belloy lab is hiring!