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Professor Kristine Freude’s project will investigate why women are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease by assessing how sex specific changes in gene expression is leading to changes in the activity of brain immune cells (microglia). Microglia are directly involved in the survival and functionality of neurons, which are progressively lost in Alzheimer’s disease.

Epigenetic and functional studies in microglia derived from patient and control induced pluripotent stem cells will reveal which biological pathways are divergent in female microglia vs. male microglia. It is anticipated that the results from this project will aid the clinical decisions to implement immunomodulatory treatments in a personalized and sex specific manner.