Research summary
Alzheimer’s disease and colorectal cancer affect millions of Canadians: Alzheimer’s is the ninth leading cause of all deaths in Canada, and it is estimated that one in 16 Canadian men will develop colorectal cancer during their lifetimes, while one in 38 will die from it. As Canada Research Chair in Bioinformatics for Personalized Medicine, Dr. Touati Benoukraf is developing innovative tools and providing a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases.
He and his research team are using a combination of experimental and computational techniques to advance our understanding of the complex omics interplay in Alzheimer’s disease and colorectal cancers. They also aim to improve the characterization of DNA methylation dynamics (when a small molecule called a methyl group gets added to DNA, proteins or other molecules) in these diseases and identify new drug targets.