Jacob Ziontz's first first-author paper from the lab is now published in the Annals of Neurology.
The study asks a pretty simple question: Why does Alzheimer’s disease sometimes affect one side of the brain more than the other, and what can that asymmetry tell us? Using amyloid PET, tau PET, and structural MRI from 585 deeply characterized participants across two cohorts (the Longitudinal Early Onset AD study, LEADS, and the UCSF ADRC cohort) Jacob examined hemispheric asymmetry in early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The results show that asymmetry is common and clinically meaningful. Left- versus right-sided patterns of tau and brain atrophy were associated with different cognitive deficits and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Importantly, longitudinal data suggest that asymmetry also changes over the course of disease: at this clincial stage, amyloid asymmetry remains relatively stable, tau asymmetry decreases, while atrophy becomes increasingly asymmetric.
Together, the findings highlight brain asymmetry as an important and often overlooked dimension of Alzheimer’s disease heterogeneity—and may help us better understand individual disease trajectories. Congratulations to Jacob and the entire team!
