Dr. Ridge’s laboratory focuses on the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and developing computational methods/algorithms to interpret data mined from complex genomic datasets. Dr. Ridge’s current research areas include: studying the relationship of the mitochondrial genome to Alzheimer’s disease, performing family-based studies to identify rare genetic risk factors for disease, determining the functional effects of synonymous mutations in known Alzheimer’s disease genes, developing algorithms to predict the translational effects of genomic variants and to perform haplotype-based association studies. Finally, Dr. Ridge is part of the recently funded Natives Engaged in Alzheimer’s Research grant—a large collaboration of several academic institutions to build a cohort of American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Dr. Ridge is co-director of the bio specimen repository and his laboratory will lead genetic analyses of the cohort.
Research Interests
Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Genetics, Genome Biology
Teaching Interests
Bioinformatics, Genetics, Genomics
Memberships
- International Society for Computational Biology (2013 - Present)
- Alzheimer's Association (2012 - Present)
- American Society of Human Genetics (2010 - Present)