A systemic view of Alzheimer's disease - Genomic insights into its metabolic and immune etiology

PhD defence by Cesar Augusto Vogado Cunha

Assessment Committee

Associate professor Tune Pers, NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR), University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Professor Thomas Willnow, Aarhus University
Dr Lynette Foo, Roche

Supervisors

Associate Professor Tuomas Oskari Kilpeläinen
Professor Ruth Loos

Department

Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research

Graduate Programme

Basic Metabolic Research

Place

Building: Panum, Room: Einar Lundsgaard Auditorium, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen

Email address to gain access to the thesis: cesar.cunha@sund.ku.dk.
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Short description of the thesis

Alzheimer's disease slowly robs people of their memory and independence, and today's treatments offer only limited benefit, partly because research has long focused too narrowly on the brain. In his PhD thesis, César Cunha takes a systemic view, using human genetics to trace the roots of Alzheimer's risk across the whole body. His first study shows that the genetic risk linked to Alzheimer's is primarily acting in peripheral immune and metabolic systems, not the brain itself. His second study reveals shared genetic roots between obesity, type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's, highlighting unexpected roles of metabolic health in midlife. Together, these findings may help reframe Alzheimer's as a whole-body condition, opening new paths toward earlier detection, prevention and alternative therapeutic approaches.