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Julie Williams

Prof Julie Williams

Group Leader

Understanding the genetics of Alzheimer's disease

Biography

Prof Julie Williams is a world leader in the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and former Chief Scientific Advisor to the Welsh Government. She was the founding Centre Director for UK DRI at Cardiff from 2017-2024. With a background in Psychology, Julie obtained her PhD from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. She joined University of Wales College of Medicine in 1991 as a Research Assistant, rising to Reader in Neuropsychological Genetics. As a co-lead in global initiatives her group has contributed to the discovery of over 40 susceptibility loci for AD. These findings implicate the role of immunity in disease development and specifically the contribution of microglia. Computational genetics of AD shows it to be a disease of multiple components which together, allow the prediction of those at high risk. Julie’s contribution to the field was recognised with a CBE in 2012. She is also an advocate for women in STEMM, commissioning a report that aimed to address the gender imbalance in science, published in 2016. Julie is also a member of the Council of the Academy of Medical Sciences and their champion in Wales.

News

Key publications

Nature genetics
Published
Transferability of European-derived Alzheimer's disease polygenic risk scores across multiancestry populations
Authors
Aude Nicolas, Richard Sherva, Benjamin Grenier-Boley, Yoontae Kim, Masataka Kikuchi, Jigyasha Timsina, Itziar de Rojas, María Carolina Dalmasso, Xiaopu Zhou, Yann Le Guen, Carlos E Arboleda-Bustos, Maria Aparecida Camargos Bicalho, Maëlenn Guerchet, Sven van der Lee, Monica Goss, Atahualpa Castillo, Céline Bellenguez, Fahri Küçükali, Claudia L Satizabal, Bernard Fongang, Qiong Yang, Oliver Peters, Anja Schneider, Martin Dichgans, Dan Rujescu, Norbert Scherbaum, Jürgen Deckert, Steffi Riedel-Heller, Lucrezia Hausner, Laura Molina-Porcel, Emrah Düzel, Timo Grimmer, Jens Wiltfang, Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, Susanne Moebus, Thomas Tegos, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Oriol Dols-Icardo, Fermin Moreno, Jordi Pérez-Tur, María J Bullido, Pau Pastor, Raquel Sánchez-Valle, Victoria Álvarez, Han Cao, Nancy Y Ip, Amy K Y Fu, Fanny C F Ip, Natividad Olivar, Carolina Muchnik, Carolina Cuesta, Lorenzo Campanelli, Patricia Solis, Daniel Gustavo Politis, Silvia Kochen, Luis Ignacio Brusco, Mercè Boada, Pablo García-González, Raquel Puerta, Pablo Mir, Luis M Real, Gerard Piñol-Ripoll, Jose María García-Alberca, Jose Luís Royo, Eloy Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Hilkka Soininen, Sami Heikkinen, Alexandre de Mendonça, Shima Mehrabian, Latchezar Traykov, Jakub Hort, Martin Vyhnalek, Katrine Laura Rasmussen, Jesper Qvist Thomassen, Yolande A L Pijnenburg, Henne Holstege, John C van Swieten, Harro Seelaar, Jurgen A H R Claassen, Willemijn J Jansen, Inez Ramakers, Frans Verhey, Aad van der Lugt, Philip Scheltens, Jenny Ortega-Rojas, Ana Gabriela Concha Mera, Maria F Mahecha, Rodrigo Pardo, Gonzalo Arboleda, Shahram Bahrami, Vera Fominykh, Geir Selbæk, Caroline Graff, Goran Papenberg, Vilmantas Giedraitis, Anne Boland, Jean-François Deleuze, Luiz Armando de Marco, Edgar Nunes de Moraes, Bernardo de Mattos Viana, Marco Túlio Gualberto Cintra, Teresa Juarez-Cedillo, Anthony J Griswold, Tatiana Forund, Jonathan Haines, Lindsay Farrer, Anita DeStefano, Ellen Wijsman, Richard Mayeux, Margaret Pericak-Vance, Brian Kunkle, Alison Goate, Gerard D Schellenberg, Badri Vardarajan, Li-San Wang, Yuk Yee Leung, Clifton L Dalgard, Gael Nicolas, David Wallon, Carole Dufouil, Florence Pasquier, Olivier Hanon, Stéphanie Debette, Edna Grünblatt, Julius Popp, Bárbara Angel, Sergio Gloger, Maria Victoria Chacon, Rafael Aranguiz, Paulina Orellana, Andrea Slachevsky, Christian Gonzalez-Billault, Cecilia Albala, Patricio Fuentes, Perminder Sachdev, Karen A Mather, Richard L Hauger, Victoria Merritt, Matthew Panizzon, Rui Zhang, J Michael Gaziano, Roberta Ghidoni, Daniela Galimberti, Beatrice Arosio, Patrizia Mecocci, Vincenzo Solfrizzi, Lucilla Parnetti, Alessio Squassina, Lucio Tremolizzo, Barbara Borroni, Benedetta Nacmias, Paolo Caffarra, Davide Seripa, Innocenzo Rainero, Antonio Daniele, Fabrizio Piras, EADB, Hampton L Leonard, Jenifer S Yokoyama, Mike A Nalls, Akinori Miyashita, Norikazu Hara, Kouichi Ozaki, Shumpei Niida, Julie Williams, Carlo Masullo, Philippe Amouyel, Pierre-Marie Preux, Pascal Mbelesso, Bébène Bandzouzi, Andy Saykin, Frank Jessen, Patrick G Kehoe, Cornelia Van Duijn, Nesrine Ben Salem, Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, Lotfi Cherni, Michael D Greicius, Magda Tsolaki, Pascual Sánchez-Juan, Marco Aurélio Romano Silva, Tenielle Porter, Simon M Laws, Kristel Sleegers, Martin Ingelsson, Jean-François Dartigues, Sudha Seshadri, Giacomina Rossi, Laura Morelli, Mikko Hiltunen, Rebecca Sims, Wiesje van der Flier, Ole A Andreassen, Humberto Arboleda, Carlos Cruchaga, Valentina Escott-Price, Agustín Ruiz, Kun Ho Lee, Takeshi Ikeuchi, Alfredo Ramirez, Jungsoo Gim, Mark Logue, Jean-Charles Lambert
Transferability of European-derived Alzheimer's disease polygenic risk scores across multiancestry populations
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences
Published
<em>APOE</em> stratified genome-wide association studies provide novel insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimers's disease
Authors
Jesper Qvist Thomassen, Leonard Hampton, Brittany Ulms, Benjamin Grenier-Boley, Sami Heikkinen, Pablo Garcia, Atahualapa Castillo-Morales, Masataka Kikuchi, Jungsoo Gim, Han Cao, Fahri Küçükali, Najaf Amin, Dabin Yoon, Itziar de Rojas, Pilar Alvarez Jerez, Victoria Alvarez, Beatrice Arosio, Celine Bellenguez, Sverre Bergh, Kimberly Billingsley, Cornelis Blauwendraat, Merce Boada, Barbara Borroni, Paola Bossù, María J Bullido, Antonio Daniele, Ángel Carracedo, Alexandre de Mendonça, Mark Cookson, Jürgen Deckert, Martin Dichgans, Srdjan Djurovic, Oriol Dols-Icardo, Carole Dufouil, Emrah Düzel, Valentina Escott-Price, Tormod Fladby, Laura Fratiglioni, Amy K Y Fu, Daniela Galimberti, Jose Maria García-Alberca, Vilmantas Giedraitis, Guillermo Garcia-Ribas, Caroline Graff, Timo Grimmer, Edna Grünblatt, OIivier Hanon, Lucrezia Hausner, Stefanie Heilmann-Hemibach, Jakub Hort, Frank Jessen, Kendall Jensen, Caroline Jonson, Yoontae Kim, Nicole Kuznetsov, Ville Leinonen, Anssi Lipponen, Jiao Luo, Mary Makarious, Henna Martiskainen, Carlo Masullo, Patrizia Mecocci, Shima Mehrabian, Pablo Mir, Akinori Miyashita, Susanne Moebus, Kin Y Mok, Laura Molina Porcel, Fermin Moreno, Benedetta Nacmias, Lucilla Parnetti, Pau Pastor, Jordi Pérez-Tur, Oliver Peters, Yolande A L Pijnenburg, Gerard Piñol-Ripoll, Julius Popp, Innocenzo Rainero, Luis M Real, Steffi Riedel-Heller, Eloy Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Arvid Rongve, Giacomina Rossi, Jose Luis Royo, Dan Rujescu, Ingvild Saltvedt, María Eugenia Sáez, Raquel Sánchez-Valle, Florentino Sanchez-Garcia, Nicolai Sandau, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Katja Scheffler, Norbert Scherbaum, Anja Schneider, Geir Selbæk, Davide Seripa, Vincenzo Solfrizzi, Marco Spallazzi, Alessio Squassina, Eystein Stordal, Niccoló Tesi, Lucio Tremolizzo, Kumar P Tripathi, Wiesje M van der Flier, Julie Williams, Jens Wiltfang, Dag Aarsland, Andrew B Singleton, Philippe Amouyel, Stéphanie Debette, Gael Nicolas, Sven van der Lee, Henne Holstege, Maria Victoria Fernandez, Patrick Gavin Kehoe, Kristel Sleegers, Martin Ingelsson, Roberta Ghidoni, Ole A Andreassen, Peter A Holmans, Pascual Sánchez-Juan, Rebecca Sims, Nancy Y Ip, Kun Ho Lee, Takeshi Ikeuchi, Alfredo Ramirez, Agustin Ruiz, Mikko Hiltunen, Jean-Charles Lambert, Cornelia van Duijn, Mike Nalls, Ruth Frikke-Schmidt
<em>APOE</em> stratified genome-wide association studies provide novel insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimers's disease
Molecular psychiatry
Published
X-chromosome-wide association study for Alzheimer's disease
Authors
Julie Le Borgne, Lissette Gomez, Sami Heikkinen, Najaf Amin, Shahzad Ahmad, Seung Hoan Choi, Joshua Bis, Benjamin Grenier-Boley, Omar Garcia Rodriguez, Luca Kleineidam, Juan Young, Kumar Parijat Tripathi, Lily Wang, Achintya Varma, Rafael Campos-Martin, Sven van der Lee, Vincent Damotte, Itziar de Rojas, Sagnik Palmal, EADB, GR@ACE, DEGESCO, EADI, GERAD, DemGene, FinnGen, ADGC, CHARGE, Richard Lipton, Eric Reiman, Ann McKee, Philip De Jager, William Bush, Scott Small, Allan Levey, Andrew Saykin, Tatiana Foroud, Marilyn Albert, Bradley Hyman, Ronald Petersen, Steven Younkin, Mary Sano, Thomas Wisniewski, Robert Vassar, Julie Schneider, Victor Henderson, Erik Roberson, Charles DeCarli, Frank LaFerla, James Brewer, Russell Swerdlow, Linda Van Eldik, Kara Hamilton-Nelson, Henry Paulson, Adam Naj, Oscar Lopez, Helena Chui, Paul Crane, Thomas Grabowski, Walter Kukull, Sanjay Asthana, Suzanne Craft, Stephen Strittmatter, Carlos Cruchaga, James Leverenz, Alison Goate, M Ilyas Kamboh, Peter St George-Hyslop, Otto Valladares, Amanda Kuzma, Laura Cantwell, Matthias Riemenschneider, John Morris, Susan Slifer, Carolina Dalmasso, Atahualpa Castillo, Fahri Küçükali, Oliver Peters, Anja Schneider, Martin Dichgans, Dan Rujescu, Norbert Scherbaum, Jürgen Deckert, Steffi Riedel-Heller, Lucrezia Hausner, Laura Molina-Porcel, Emrah Düzel, Timo Grimmer, Jens Wiltfang, Stefanie Heilmann-Heimbach, Susanne Moebus, Thomas Tegos, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Oriol Dols-Icardo, Fermin Moreno, Jordi Pérez-Tur, María J Bullido, Pau Pastor, Raquel Sánchez-Valle, Victoria Álvarez, Mercè Boada, Pablo García-González, Raquel Puerta, Pablo Mir, Luis M Real, Gerard Piñol-Ripoll, Jose María García-Alberca, Jose Luís Royo, Eloy Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Hilkka Soininen, Alexandre de Mendonça, Shima Mehrabian, Latchezar Traykov, Jakub Hort, Martin Vyhnalek, Jesper Qvist Thomassen, Yolande A L Pijnenburg, Henne Holstege, John van Swieten, Inez Ramakers, Frans Verhey, Philip Scheltens, Caroline Graff, Goran Papenberg, Vilmantas Giedraitis, Anne Boland, Jean-François Deleuze, Gael Nicolas, Carole Dufouil, Florence Pasquier, Olivier Hanon, Stéphanie Debette, Edna Grünblatt, Julius Popp, Roberta Ghidoni, Daniela Galimberti, Beatrice Arosio, Patrizia Mecocci, Vincenzo Solfrizzi, Lucilla Parnetti, Alessio Squassina, Lucio Tremolizzo, Barbara Borroni, Benedetta Nacmias, Marco Spallazzi, Davide Seripa, Innocenzo Rainero, Antonio Daniele, Paola Bossù, Carlo Masullo, Giacomina Rossi, Frank Jessen, Victoria Fernandez, Patrick Gavin Kehoe, Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, Magda Tsolaki, Pascual Sánchez-Juan, Kristel Sleegers, Martin Ingelsson, Jonathan Haines, Lindsay Farrer, Richard Mayeux, Li-San Wang, Rebecca Sims, Anita DeStefano, Gerard D Schellenberg, Sudha Seshadri, Philippe Amouyel, Julie Williams, Wiesje van der Flier, Alfredo Ramirez, Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ole A Andreassen, Cornelia Van Duijn, Mikko Hiltunen, Agustín Ruiz, Josée Dupuis, Eden Martin, Jean-Charles Lambert, Brian Kunkle, Céline Bellenguez
X-chromosome-wide association study for Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimers Res Ther
Published
Proof-of-concept recall-by-genotype study of extremely low and high Alzheimer's polygenic risk reveals autobiographical deficits and cingulate cortex correlates.
Authors
Thomas Lancaster, Byron Creese, Valentina Escott-Price, Ian Driver, Georgina Menzies, Zunera Khan, Anne Corbett, Clive Ballard, Julie Williams, Kevin Murphy, Hannah Chandler
Proof-of-concept recall-by-genotype study of extremely low and high Alzheimer's polygenic risk reveals autobiographical deficits and cingulate cortex correlates.

Williams Lab

Explore the work of the Williams Lab, studying the genetics of Alzheimer's disease