Lindsay Farrer, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Neurology, Genetics & Genomics, Epidemiology, & Biostatistics
Chief, Genetics Program
 Phone: 617.638.5393
Fax: 617.638.4275
Email: farrer@bu.edu
Location: BUMC, L320
Website: http://genetics.bumc.bu.edu
Background
Dr. Lindsay Farrer is a medical geneticist at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health where he is Chief of the Genetics Program, Director of the Genetic Epidemiology Center, and a Professor of Medicine, Neurology, Genetics & Genomics, Epidemiology, and Biostatistics. Dr. Farrer is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, received his Ph.D. from the Indiana University School of Medicine, and gained additional training in genetic epidemiology at Yale University. He holds adjunct faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Bedford, Massachusetts. He is a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. Dr. Farrer teaches several courses in human genetics and genetic epidemiology at Boston University, directs the Molecular Genetics Core Facility, which offers DNA genotyping and sequencing services to investigators at the Boston Medical Center, and provides genetic counseling and testing to patients with a variety of inherited conditions.
Research Interests
Dr. Farrer’s research has lead to more than 200 publications on genetic risk factors for several familial neurodegenerative and other chronic diseases. In collaboration with other laboratories worldwide, his group has localized genes causing a variety of rare and common disorders including Alzheimer disease (AD), Wilson disease, Machado-Joseph disease, Waardenburg syndrome, hypertension, sensorineural deafness, and osteoarthritis. Dr. Farrer’s team is developing genetic mapping methods for locating genetic modifiers for disorders whose primary defects are already known, but account for only a small portion of the phenotypic variation. Such modifier genes will probably be more amenable than the primary structural genes to strategies for delaying or modulating expression.
Under Dr. Farrer’s leadership, the MIRAGE Project, a multi-center study of AD funded since 1991 by the National Institute on Aging, has made several important contributions to our understanding of the interactions between genetic and environmental factors for the disorder. This study has a particular emphasis on the genetics of AD in African Americans. Thus far, detailed family histories, risk factor data, and DNA specimens from more than 2,500 AD families have been collected as a part of this program.
Dr. Farrer and his colleagues in the Genetics Program have an integral role in expanding existing and developing new multi disciplinary research programs with other School of Medicine faculty as well as with outside investigators. They are working together with members of the Hypertension section on the Hypertension SCOR Program which is dedicated to identifying genes for hypertension and blood pressure regulation disorders; with the Cardiovascular section on the Atherosclerosis SCOR Program, part of which is focused on genetic modulators of endothelial dysfunction; with the Pulmonary section on the genetics of severe asthma; with the Hematology/Oncology section on projects aimed at identifying genes influencing severity and expression of sickle cell anemia; and with New England Centenarian Study based in the Geriatrics section on the genetic basis of exceptional longevity.
In collaboration with researchers at several other institutions, Dr. Farrer is conducting a genome scan to search for genes conveying susceptibility to cocaine and opioid dependence among families with multiple affected members. His laboratory is coordinating an extremely large international study to identify genes for metabolic syndrome, a common disorder characterized by atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, hypertension and central obesity. Recently, Dr. Farrer and collaborators at the University of Texas Southwestern identified a functional genetic variant which accounts for approximately 50% of the attributable risk for macular degeneration, the leading cause of progressive vision loss and blindness in the elderly.
ADC role
Lindsay Farrer, PhD. is a senior investigator within the ADC. He is Project Director for the Multi-Institutional Research in Alzheimer's Genetic Epidemiology (MIRAGE) study and a Co-Investigator on the Risk Evaluation & Education for Alzheimer's Disease (REVEAL) Study.
Awards/Memberships
Dr. Farrer was named an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, recognized by “Who’s Who in the World”, and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana University School of Medicine. He has been invited to speak around the world. He is a member of several scientific and medical organizations including the American Society of Human Genetics. He is a founding member of International Genetic Epidemiology Society and was elected to the World Federation of Neurology and Human Genome Organization.
Recent Publications
Green RC, Cupples LA, Go R, Benke KS, Edeki T, Griffith PA, Williams M, Hipps Y, Graff-Radford N, Bachman D, Farrer LA. Risk of dementia among White and African American relatives of patients with Alzheimer disease. JAMA 2002; 287: 329-336. [PubMed]
Graff-Radford N, Green RC, Go RC, Hutton ML, Edeki T, Bachman D, Adamson JL, Griffith P, Willis FB, Williams M, Hipps Y, Haines JL, Cupples LA, Farrer LA. Association between APOE genotype and Alzheimer disease in African Americans. Arch Neurol 2002; 59:594-600. [PubMed]
Riazanskaya N, Lukiw WJ, Grigorenko A, Korovaitseva G, , Molyaka Y, Nicolaou M, Farrer L, Bazan NG, Rogaev EI. Regulatory region variability in the human presenilin-2 (PSEN2) gene: modulation of gene activity and potential contribution to the risk for AD. Mol Psychiatry 2002; 7:891-898. [PubMed]
Farrer LA , Bowirrat A, Friedland RP, Waraska K, Korczyn AD, Baldwin CT. Identification of multiple loci for Alzheimer disease in a consanguineous Israeli-Arab Community. Hum Mol Genet 2003;12: 415-422. [PubMed]
Kennedy JL, Farrer LA, Andreasen NC, Mayeux R, St. George-Hyslop P. The genetics of adult-onset neuropsychiatric disease: complexities and conundra? Science 2003; 302: 822-826 . [PubMed]
Saleh M, Vaillancourt JP, Graham RK, Huyck M, Srinivasula SM, Alnemri ES, Steinberg MH, Nolan V, Baldwin, CT, Hotchkiss RS, Buchman TG, Zehnbauer BA, Hayden MR, Farrer LA, Roy S, Nicholson DW. Differential modulation of endotoxin responsiveness by human caspase-12 polymorphs. Nature 2004; 429: 75-79. [PubMed]
Edwards AO, Ritter R, Abel KJ, Manning A, Panhuysen C, Farrer LA. Complement factor H polymorphism and age-related macular degeneration. Science 2005; 308: 421-424. [PubMed]
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