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Allison Elizabeth Ashley-Koch

Professor in Medicine
Medicine, Nephrology
Duke Box 104775, Durham, NC 27701
300 N Duke St., Durham, NC 27701

Selected Publications


Genome-wide screen to identify genetic loci associated with cognitive decline in late-life depression.

Journal Article Int Psychogeriatr · November 2024 OBJECTIVE: This study sought to conduct a comprehensive search for genetic risk of cognitive decline in the context of geriatric depression. DESIGN: A genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis in the Neurocognitive Outcomes of Depression in the Elderly ... Full text Link to item Cite

Genomic structural equation modeling reveals latent phenotypes in the human cortex with distinct genetic architecture.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · October 24, 2024 Genetic contributions to human cortical structure manifest pervasive pleiotropy. This pleiotropy may be harnessed to identify unique genetically-informed parcellations of the cortex that are neurobiologically distinct from functional, cytoarchitectural, or ... Full text Link to item Cite

Whole-genome sequencing in 333,100 individuals reveals rare non-coding single variant and aggregate associations with height.

Journal Article Nat Commun · October 3, 2024 The role of rare non-coding variation in complex human phenotypes is still largely unknown. To elucidate the impact of rare variants in regulatory elements, we performed a whole-genome sequencing association analysis for height using 333,100 individuals fr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Epigenetic Aging Associations With Psychoneurological Symptoms and Social Functioning in Adults With Sickle Cell Disease.

Journal Article Biol Res Nurs · October 2024 Objective: Sickle cell disease (SCD), the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, is associated with severe psychoneurological symptoms. While epigenetic age acceleration has been linked to psychoneurological symptom burden in other dise ... Full text Link to item Cite

Analyses of GWAS signal using GRIN identify additional genes contributing to suicidal behavior.

Journal Article Communications biology · October 2024 Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identify genetic variants underlying complex traits but are limited by stringent genome-wide significance thresholds. We present GRIN (Gene set Refinement through Interacting Networks), which increases confidence in t ... Full text Cite

Demographic characteristics and epigenetic biological aging among post-9/11 veterans: Associations of DunedinPACE with sex, race, and age.

Journal Article Psychiatry Res · June 2024 Measures of epigenetic aging derived from DNA methylation (DNAm) have enabled the assessment of biological aging in new populations and cohorts. In the present study, we used an epigenetic measure of aging, DunedinPACE, to examine rates of aging across dem ... Full text Link to item Cite

Deployment-related toxic exposures are associated with worsening mental and physical health after military service: Results from a self-report screening of veterans deployed after 9/11.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · June 2024 Exposure to toxins-such as heavy metals and air pollution-can result in poor health and wellbeing. Recent scientific and media attention has highlighted negative health outcomes associated with toxic exposures for U.S. military personnel deployed overseas. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Validation of human telomere length multi-ancestry meta-analysis association signals identifies POP5 and KBTBD6 as human telomere length regulation genes.

Journal Article Nat Commun · May 24, 2024 Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have become well-powered to detect loci associated with telomere length. However, no prior work has validated genes nominated by GWAS to examine their role in telomere length regulation. We conducted a multi-ancestry ... Full text Link to item Cite

Risk of meningomyelocele mediated by the common 22q11.2 deletion.

Journal Article Science · May 3, 2024 Meningomyelocele is one of the most severe forms of neural tube defects (NTDs) and the most frequent structural birth defect of the central nervous system. We assembled the Spina Bifida Sequencing Consortium to identify causes. Exome and genome sequencing ... Full text Link to item Cite

Genome-wide association analyses identify 95 risk loci and provide insights into the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Nat Genet · May 2024 Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) genetics are characterized by lower discoverability than most other psychiatric disorders. The contribution to biological understanding from previous genetic studies has thus been limited. We performed a multi-ancestry ... Full text Link to item Cite

Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of cannabis use disorder in a veteran cohort enriched for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Psychiatry Res · March 2024 Cannabis use has been increasing over the past decade, not only in the general US population, but particularly among military veterans. With this rise in use has come a concomitant increase in cannabis use disorder (CUD) among veterans. Here, we performed ... Full text Link to item Cite

Nontargeted Plasma Proteomic Analysis of Renal Disease and Pulmonary Hypertension in Patients with Sickle Cell Disease.

Journal Article J Proteome Res · March 1, 2024 Sickle cell disease (SCD) is characterized by red blood cell sickling, vaso-occlusion, hemolytic anemia, damage to multiple organ systems, and, as a result, shortened life expectancy. Sickle cell disease nephropathy (SCDN) and pulmonary hypertension (pHTN) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Potential causal association between gut microbiome and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · January 31, 2024 BACKGROUND: The causal effects of gut microbiome and the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are still unknown. This study aimed to clarify their potential causal association using mendelian randomization (MR). METHODS: The summary-level st ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

High dimensional predictions of suicide risk in 4.2 million US Veterans using ensemble transfer learning.

Journal Article Sci Rep · January 20, 2024 We present an ensemble transfer learning method to predict suicide from Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic medical records (EMR). A diverse set of base models was trained to predict a binary outcome constructed from reported suicide, suicide attempt, and ove ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characterizing epigenetic aging in an adult sickle cell disease cohort.

Journal Article Blood Adv · January 9, 2024 Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects ∼100 000 predominantly African American individuals in the United States, causing significant cellular damage, increased disease complications, and premature death. However, the contribution of epigenetic factors to SCD pa ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Posttraumatic stress disorder, trauma, and accelerated biological aging among post-9/11 veterans.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · January 6, 2024 People who experience trauma and develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk for poor health. One mechanism that could explain this risk is accelerated biological aging, which is associated with the accumulation of chronic diseases, ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Multivariate investigation of aging in mouse models expressing the Alzheimer's protective APOE2 allele: integrating cognitive metrics, brain imaging, and blood transcriptomics.

Journal Article Brain Struct Funct · January 2024 APOE allelic variation is critical in brain aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The APOE2 allele associated with cognitive resilience and neuroprotection against AD remains understudied. We employed a multipronged approach to characterize the transition fr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gene-metabolite annotation with shortest reactional distance enhances metabolite genome-wide association studies results.

Journal Article iScience · December 15, 2023 Metabolite genome-wide association studies (mGWAS) have advanced our understanding of the genetic control of metabolite levels. However, interpreting these associations remains challenging due to a lack of tools to annotate gene-metabolite pairs beyond the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Associations between Epigenetic Age Acceleration and Psychoneurological Symptoms in Sickle Cell Disease

Conference Blood · November 2, 2023 Introduction:Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects approximately 100,000 predominantly Black or African American individuals in the United States. The disease has several acute and chronic c ... Full text Cite

Differences in the Circulating Proteome in Individuals with versus without Sickle Cell Trait.

Journal Article Clin J Am Soc Nephrol · November 1, 2023 BACKGROUND: Sickle cell trait affects approximately 8% of Black individuals in the United States, along with many other individuals with ancestry from malaria-endemic regions worldwide. While traditionally considered a benign condition, recent evidence sug ... Full text Link to item Cite