Jingjing Liang

Dr. Jingjing Liang, Ph.D., is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science.  She received her Ph.D. in pathology and genetic epidemiology from Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Liang is also a faculty member in the Genetics and Statistics & Data Science programs within the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Liang’s research interests focus on investigating the genetic risk factors associated with intermediate phenotypes shared among various neurodegenerative diseases. Her studies aim to unravel the underlying genetic mechanisms contributing to histopathological alterations, protein aggregations, neuronal loss, and cognitive decline in diverse neurodegenerative conditions. She utilizes multimodal neuroimaging, machine learning, and rare-variant association analysis in brain imaging and sequencing data to gain insights into these complex diseases. Dr. Liang’s has published over 30 peer-reviewed research articles and presented her research at both national and international conferences.

Select Publications

2023

Liang J., LeFleur B., Hussainy S., Perry G. Gene co-expression analysis of multiple brain tissues reveals correlation of FAM222A expression with multiple Alzheimer’s Disease-related genes. J Alzheimer’s Dis. 2023 Apr 17. doi: 10.3233/JAD-221241  PMID: 3709222

2022

Liang J, Wang H, Cade BE, Kurniansyah N, et al. (2022) Targeted genome sequencing identifies multiple rare variants in Caveolin-1 associated with obstructive sleep apnea. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.  2022 Nov 15;206(10):1271-1280. PMCID: PMC9746833  PMID: 35822943

2020

Yan T., Liang J.*, Gao J., Wang L., Fujioka H., The Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Zhu X., Wang X.  FAM222A encodes a protein which accumulates in plaques in Alzheimer’s disease. Nat Commun.  2020 Jan 21;11(1):411.  PMCID: PMC6972869  PMID: 31964863

2019

Liang J, Cade BE., He KY., Wang H., Lee J., Sofer T., Williams S., Li R., Li X., Chen H., et al. Sequencing analysis at 8p23 identifies multiple rare variants in DLC1 associated with sleep related oxyhemoglobin saturation level.  Am J Hum Genet. 2019 Nov 7;105(5):1057-1068  PMCID: PMC6849112  PMID: 30668705

2017

Liang J., Le TH., Edwards DRV., Tayo BO., Gaulton KJ., Smith JA., Lu Y., Jensen RA., Chen G., Yanek LR., et al. Single-trait and multi-trait genome-wide association analyses identify novel loci for blood pressure in African-ancestry populations.  PLoS Genet. 2017 May 12;13(5):e1006728. PMCID: PMC5446189  PMID: 24498854

Lane JM., Liang J., Vlasac I., Anderson SG., Bechtold DA., Bowden J., Emsley R., Gill S., Little MA., Luik AI., et al. Genome-wide association analyses of sleep disturbance traits identify new loci and highlight shared genetics with neuropsychiatric and metabolic traits. Nat Genet. 2017 Feb;49(2):274-281.  PMCID: PMC5491693  PMID: 27992416