Shahzad Ahmad
Senior Human Geneticist
Shahzad Ahmad joined IMCM core data team as Senior Human Geneticist in 2022. He read for an undergraduate degree in microbiology from Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan. He was awarded a foreign scholarship to study Master in Life Science Informatics at the Bonn-Aachen International Centre for information technology, Bonn, Germany. He obtained his second master’s degree as a part of the MSc-PhD program in Genetic Epidemiology at the Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands. In August 2019, he started working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR), and afterward continued his research as a joint postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam and the LACDR, Leiden until November 2022. During his postdoc, he led a meta-analysis of genome-wide association study of neurofilament light (NfL) in the CHARGE consortium, and investigated the role of gut-microbiome, genome and exposome in driving blood levels of metabolites and their relationship with general cognition.
Over the last decade, Shahzad participated in multiple international consortia including the Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) ADAPTED program, Alzheimer’s disease sequencing project (ADSP), the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE), the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP), and the Alzheimer’s Disease Metabolomics Consortium (ADMC).
More broadly, his research interests include Genetic Epidemiology, Metabolomics, Proteomics, cross-omics integration, Alzheimer's disease, and neurodegenerative diseases. He is passionate about translational research, and his current work focuses on the integration of multi-omics data for patient risk stratification, the discovery of new drug targets and biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases
Key publications
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Whole exome sequencing study identifies novel rare and common Alzheimer’s-Associated variants involved in immune response and transcriptional regulation
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Bis JC. et al, (2020), Molecular Psychiatry, 25, 1859 - 1875
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Correction: Whole exome sequencing study identifies novel rare and common Alzheimer’s-Associated variants involved in immune response and transcriptional regulation
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Bis JC. et al, (2020), Molecular Psychiatry, 25, 1901 - 1903
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Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease
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Sims R. et al, (2017), Nature Genetics, 49, 1373 - 1384
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Association of oxidative stress and inflammatory metabolites with Alzheimer’s disease cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers in mild cognitive impairment
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Ahmad S. et al, (2024), Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 16
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Exome sequencing identifies rare damaging variants in ATP8B4 and ABCA1 as risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease
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Holstege H. et al, (2022), Nature Genetics, 54, 1786 - 1794
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CDH6 and HAGH protein levels in plasma associate with Alzheimer’s disease in APOE ε4 carriers
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Ahmad S. et al, (2020), Scientific Reports, 10
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Genetic predisposition, modifiable-risk-factor profile and long-term dementia risk in the general population
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Licher S. et al, (2019), Nature Medicine, 25, 1364 - 1369
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Genetic correlations and genome-wide associations of cortical structure in general population samples of 22,824 adults
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Hofer E. et al, (2020), Nature Communications, 11
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Genome-wide meta-analyses reveal novel loci for verbal short-term memory and learning
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Lahti J. et al, (2022), Molecular Psychiatry, 27, 4419 - 4431
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Prion protein codon 129 polymorphism in mild cognitive impairment and dementia: the Rotterdam Study
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Karamujić-Čomić H. et al, (2020), Brain Communications, 2
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Increased High-Density Lipoprotein Levels Associated with Age-Related Macular Degeneration
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Colijn JM. et al, (2019), Ophthalmology, 126, 393 - 406
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Multi-Omic analyses characterize the ceramide/sphingomyelin pathway as a therapeutic target in Alzheimer’s disease
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Baloni P. et al, (2022), Communications Biology, 5
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Circulating metabolites are associated with brain atrophy and white matter hyperintensities
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de Leeuw FA. et al, (2021), Alzheimer's & Dementia, 17, 205 - 214
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The genetic landscape of neuro-related proteins in human plasma.
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Repetto L. et al, (2024), Nature human behaviour, 8, 2222 - 2234
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X‐chromosome-wide association study for Alzheimer’s disease
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Le Borgne J. et al, (2025), Molecular Psychiatry, 30, 2335 - 2346
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Plasma trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO): associations with cognition, neuroimaging, and dementia
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Yaqub A. et al, (2024), Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 16
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Matrix metalloproteinase 10 is linked to the risk of progression to dementia of the Alzheimer’s type
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Martino Adami PV. et al, (2022), Brain, 145, 2507 - 2517
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Association of lysophosphatidic acids with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and progression to Alzheimer’s disease
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Ahmad S. et al, (2020), Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 12
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Author Correction: Genetic meta-analysis of diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease identifies new risk loci and implicates Aβ, tau, immunity and lipid processing
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Kunkle BW. et al, (2019), Nature Genetics, 51, 1423 - 1424
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Challenges at the APOE locus: a robust quality control approach for accurate APOE genotyping
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Belloy ME. et al, (2022), Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 14
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Genetic meta-analysis of diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease identifies new risk loci and implicates Aβ, tau, immunity and lipid processing
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Kunkle BW. et al, (2019), Nature Genetics, 51, 414 - 430
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Disentangling the biological pathways involved in early features of Alzheimer's disease in the Rotterdam Study
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Ahmad S. et al, (2018), Alzheimer's & Dementia, 14, 848 - 857
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Genome-wide association study of frontotemporal dementia identifies a C9ORF72 haplotype with a median of 12-G4C2 repeats that predisposes to pathological repeat expansions
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Reus LM. et al, (2021), Translational Psychiatry, 11
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Association of blood cell‐based inflammatory markers with gut microbiota and cancer incidence in the Rotterdam study
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Najjary S. et al, (2024), Cancer Medicine, 13
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New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias
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Bellenguez C. et al, (2022), Nature Genetics, 54, 412 - 436
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Exome Sequencing Analysis Identifies Rare Variants in ATM and RPL8 That Are Associated With Shorter Telomere Length
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van der Spek A. et al, (2020), Frontiers in Genetics, 11
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Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies ancestry-specific associations underlying circulating total tau levels
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Sarnowski C. et al, (2022), Communications Biology, 5
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Association of Altered Liver Enzymes With Alzheimer Disease Diagnosis, Cognition, Neuroimaging Measures, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers
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Nho K. et al, (2019), JAMA Network Open, 2, e197978 - e197978
Recent publications
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Hensen T. et al, (2025), Gut Microbes Reports, 2
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Le Borgne J. et al, (2025), Molecular Psychiatry, 30, 2335 - 2346
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Journal article
Repetto L. et al, (2024), Nature human behaviour, 8, 2222 - 2234
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Ahmad S. et al, (2024), Communications Biology, 7
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Ahmad S. et al, (2024), Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 16
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Andreu‐Sánchez S. et al, (2024), iMeta, 3
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Yaqub A. et al, (2024), Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, 16
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Leonard S. et al, (2024), Clinical and Experimental Immunology, 215, 251 - 260