Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors.

Background: Video interfacing is increasingly being used in research and health care. The 'VCog' Study seeks to determine whether remote research cognitive assessments are reliable and valid by directly comparing results from in-person administration of a standardized cognitive battery to the same battery administered remotely by video. The study also assesses technology use and comfort amongst participants of varying levels of cognitive impairment.

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.