The Kizil Lab will participate in the 18th International Zebrafish Disease Models (ZDM18) Conference with two talks this year! Join us in Boston from October 13–15, 2025, where we will share our latest work on zebrafish disease models and our interesting findings. We look forward to connecting with the zebrafish research community there! https://www.zdmsociety.org/zdm18-agenda
New Paper Published: Shared Genetic Architecture Between Early-Onset Alzheimer’s and Lipid Traits
We are pleased to highlight a recent publication by Ray et al. (2025) that investigates local genetic covariance between early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD) and blood lipid traits. We in the Kizil Lab are proud to have contributed to this collaboration, which deepens our understanding of how lipid biology intersects with neurodegenerative risk. 👉 Read the …
New Preprint
Our collaborators - Tosches Lab - have just published a fascinating study: “The evolutionary origins of Cajal–Retzius cells”. We in the Kizil Lab were honored to contribute to this work, which maps Tp73⁺ neurons across vertebrates (chicken, salamander, zebrafish, skate) and reveals that Cajal–Retzius (CR) cells likely emerged from an ancient Tp73⁺ lineage associated with …
Our preprint about new insights from human brains into APOE‑ε4 in vascular pathology and Alzheimer’s disease risk is out
We are happy to announce a new preprint from the Kizil Lab, led by first author Elanur Yilmaz, titled “Single‑nucleus multiomics in brains from Hispanic individuals reveal APOE‑ε4‑driven disruption of focal adhesion signaling in the presence of cerebrovascular pathology.” In this study, our team analyzed 413,175 single nuclei from 52 postmortem brains with high cerebrovascular …
New preprint investigating the pathology mechanisms of Fibronectin at the blood-brain barrier is out
We are excited to share a new preprint from the Kizil Lab titled "APOE‑ε4‑induced Fibronectin at the blood‑brain barrier is a conserved pathological mediator of disrupted astrocyte–endothelia interaction in Alzheimer’s disease." In this study, we uncover a previously unknown mechanism by which the APOE‑ε4 allele—one of the strongest genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease—disrupts brain …
We presented our work at AD/PD™ 2025 and EZPM 2025
Our lab presented our findings ranging from zebrafish to human brains in AD/PD™ 2025 Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Diseases Conference in Vienna by Dr. Elanur Yilmaz and Dr. Prabesh Bhattarai and in 7th European Zebrafish Principal Investigators Meeting in Paris by Dr. Caghan Kizil.
Decoding the Heart’s “Little Brain”
We’re proud to share our groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications. Our work sheds light on the zebrafish intracardiac nervous system (IcNS)—a local neural network acting as the heart’s "little brain." This was a fantastic collaborative effort between teams at Karolinska Institute and Columbia University, spearheaded by the Konstantinos Ampatzis Lab and Kizil Lab. Huge …
Our publication received the McAlpine Foundation for Neuroscience Research Award
We are proud to announce that our recent publication where we identified a protective genetic variant in FN1 gene against Alzheimer's disease received a recognition award from McAlpine Foundation as one of the best publications in 2024. http://www.mcalpinefoundation.org/awards.php In recognition of the Vardarajan, Kizil, and Mayeux labs' innovative cross-species approach to uncover protective mechanisms against …
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Our study about ABCA7-dependent genetic risk in Alzheimer’s disease is published
We are excited to share our new study on the role of the ABCA7 gene in brain resilience against Alzheimer’s. Published in Cell Genomics, we found that ABCA7 is crucial for maintaining synaptic health by regulating neuropeptide Y (NPY), a key molecule for brain communication and repair. Loss of ABCA7 reduces NPY, weakening the brain's …
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Our project received Translational Therapeutics Accelerator Award
We are glad to announce that we received a Translational Therapeutics Accelerator (TRx) Pilot Award, which provides resources to position therapeutic discoveries for future commercial value. This was a project entitled "Multitarget drugs for therapeutic use in Alzheimer's disease " spearheaded by Dr. Turgutalp at our lab. Congratulations!
Kizil Lab 