Comparison of sample characteristics of Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center participants with the Wisconsin state population-An evaluation of the recruitment effort.

Introduction: Understanding how a research sample compares to the population from which it is drawn can help inform future recruitment planning. We compared the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (WADRC) participant sample to the Wisconsin state population (WI-pop) on key demographic, social exposome, and vascular risk measures.

Methods: The WADRC sample included 930 participants.

Did the Covid-19 Pandemic Impact Time to Surgery, Length of Hospital Stay, or Discharge Location for Subaxial Cervical Spine Fractures Requiring Surgical Intervention?

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare systems across the United States resources were consumed caring for COVID-19 patients. Past research on trauma activations during COVID-19 has found changes to hospital length of stay and discharge locations. Subaxial spine fractures are potentially debilitating injuries that require timely surgery and extensive rehabilitation.

CORTADO: Hill Climbing Optimization for Cell-Type Specific Marker Gene Discovery.

The advent of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has greatly enhanced our ability to explore cellular heterogeneity with high resolution. Identifying subpopulations of cells and their associated molecular markers is crucial in understanding their distinct roles in tissues. To address the challenges in marker gene selection, we introduce CORTADO, a computational framework based on hill-climbing optimization for the efficient discovery of cell-type-specific markers.

Whole genome methylation sequencing in blood from persons with mild cognitive impairment and dementia due to Alzheimer's disease identifies cognitive status.

Introduction: Whole genome methylation sequencing (WGMS) in blood identifies differential DNA methylation in persons with late-onset dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) but has not been tested in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: We used WGMS to compare DNA methylation levels at 25,244,219 CpG loci in 382 blood samples from 99 persons with MCI, 109 with AD, and 174 who are cognitively unimpaired (CU).

Results: WGMS identified 9756 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) in persons with MCI, including 1743 differentially methylated genes encoding proteins in biological pathways related to synapse organization, dendrite development, and ion transport.