Project Title: Discovering Risk Genes and Pathways in Alzheimer’s Disease: Integrative Enhancer-to-Gene Interactome Mapping of the Cerebral Vasculature
Supervisor: Dr Alexi Nott, Professor Michael Johnson, Dr Sarah Marzi
Location: Level 7, Sir Michael Uren Hub, White City Campus, 86 Wood Lane, W12 0BZ

About Me

I am a President's PhD scholar in the Nott Lab at the UK DRI Centre at Imperial where my expertise are in bioinformatic analysis. My main interests lie in understanding cell type specific epigenetic changes assoicated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and ageing. In particular, my priority is to identify these age and AD associated changes, which will enable the determination of therapeutic targets at a cellular level and the repurposing of currently approved pharmacological compounds for prevention and treatment. 

Qualifications

Degree Qualifications:

  • MSc Honours Applied Genomics, Imperial College London
  • BSc Honours Biology, Queen Mary University of London

Presentations and Conference

  • 4th Epigenetics Fusion Conference, October 2024
    St. Julians, Malta
    Title: “The brain neurovascular epigenome and its association with dementia”
  • Poster presentation at CURE-ND workshop, March 2024
    Bonn, Germany
    Title: “The brain neurovascular epigenome and its association with dementia”
  • Poster presentation at UK DRI Vascular workshop, March 2024
    York, UK
    Title: “The brain neurovascular epigenome and its association with dementia”

  • Poster presentation at UK DRI Connectome 2022 conference, November 2022
    Brighton, UK
    Title: “Characterization of putative target genes of Alzheimer’s disease risk loci in microglia”

Selected Publications

Ziegler KC, Askarova A, Gergian C, Yaa RM, van Dalen JD, Transfeld JL et al. The brain neurovascular epigenome and its association with dementia. Neuron. 2025 Oct 30:S0896-6273(25)00754-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.10.001. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41173000.

 
Askarova A, Yaa RM, Marzi SJ, Nott A. Genetic risk for neurodegenerative conditions is linked to disease-specific microglial pathways. PLoS Genet. 2025 Apr 9;21(4):e1011407. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011407. PMID: 40202986; PMCID: PMC12017514.
 
Murphy AE, Askarova A, Lenhard B, Skene NG, Marzi SJ. Predicting gene expression from histone marks using chromatin deep learning models depends on histone mark function, regulatory distance and cellular states. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025 Feb 8;53(4):gkae1212. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkae1212. PMID: 39660643; PMCID: PMC11879020.

Contact Details

Email: aydan.askarova21@imperial.ac.uk

LinkedIn: aydan-askarova-769a071b8

UK DRI

Principal funder:

Medical Research Council