Prof Julie Williams
Education and Qualifications
BSc, Occupational Psychology, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology
PhD, Psychology, University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology
Research Interests
Julie Williams has been involved in Psychiatric Genetics research for the last 15 years. Initially her work focused on finding genes for schizophrenia which resulted in the identification of the DRD3 susceptibility gene and 5HT2A as susceptibility genes for schizophrenia. Ten years ago she began work on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) genetics and since has published widely, including linkage to chromosome 10 in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD). Recently, the AD group in collaboration with others identified a number of variants as susceptibility factors for LOAD (see references). Julie Williams co-ordinated the collection of 1400 AD cases and 1400 controls from the UK as part of the MRC genetic resource of LOAD. The sample is currently being used by the group and other collaborators to identify further genes for LOAD, using a variety of strategies including genome-wide association (GWAS) and was recently funded to undertake a large GWAS study by the Wellcome Trust.
Eight years ago she began research into the molecular genetics of developmental dyslexia (DD). The group have already published significant evidence for a novel gene KIAA0319 which is a strong susceptibility gene for DD Current projects include a GWAS study of DD.
Selected Publications
1.Williams J; European Multicentre Association Study of Schizophrenia (EMASS) Group (1996) Lancet, 347:1294-1296
2.Kehoe P; Presenilin 1 polymorphism and Alzheimer's disease. The UK Alzheimer's disease Collaborative Group. (1996) Lancet, 347:1185
3.Myers A; Susceptibility locus for Alzheimer’s disease on chromosome 10 (2000). Science, 290(5500): 2304-2305
4.A J Myers; Variation in the urokinase-plasminogen activator gene does not explain the chromosome 10 linkage signal for late onset AD (2003). Am J Med Genet 1; 124B(1): 29-37
5. Y Li; Association of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease with genetic variation in multiple members of the GAPD gene family (2004) Proceedings of National Academy of Science (PNAS) 101:15688-15693
6.N Cope; Strong evidence that KIAA0319 on chromosome 6p is a susceptibility gene for developmental dyslexia (2005) Am J Hum Genet 76:581-591
7.Yonghong Li; DAPK1 variants are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and allele-specific expression (2006) Human Molecular Genetics, 15(17) 2560-2568
Selected Projects
Project name: Art Research Centre
Funder: Alzheimer’s Research Trust
Duration: 12 years
Value:£203,000
Project name: Detecting susceptibility genes for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease
Funder: MRC
Duration: 5 years
Value: £1,734,895
Project name: The Genetic Basis Of Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Funder: MRC
Duration: 5 years
Value: £577,744
Project name: Alzheimer’s Brain Bank UK (ABBUK)
Funder: Alzheimer’s Society & Alzheimer’s Research Trust
Value: £1.2 million
Project name: Dyslexia Genes and Neurobiological Pathways (Neurodys)
Funder: European Union FP6
Value: 2.5 million Euros
Project name: A Powerful, Genome-Wide Association Scan for Susceptibility Genes for late-onset Alzheimer's disease
Funder: Wellcome Trust
Duration: 2 years
Value: £1.3 million