This project aims to identify biological, clinical, and environmental factors influencing brain health, aging, and the development of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Using UK Biobank’s multimodal dataset, we will integrate brain imaging, test performance (cognitive, sensory, motor), omics data (genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics), and clinical, lifestyle, and environmental variables to investigate individual differences and disease trajectories across the lifespan.
Our objectives are to:
– Uncover imaging and molecular signatures of healthy vs. pathological aging.
– Characterize how psychiatric and neurological conditions alter brain structure/function.
– Examine the influence of sex, vascular and inflammatory mechanisms, and polygenic risk.
– Use AI and statistical models to predict disease risk and identify subtypes.
We aim to disentangle mechanisms that affect the measures captured (e.g., neuroinflammation, hormonal changes, metabolic dysfunction), rather than treating them as end points. This will improve understanding of how upstream processes shape downstream phenotypes across conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. This broad approach allows the study of resilience, risk, and heterogeneity across disorders, supporting precision medicine and early detection strategies.