Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Christina M. Lill, M.D., M.Sc.

Heisenberg Professor of Translational Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Münster, Germany; Lecturer, Ageing Epidemiology Unit, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, England

Dr. Christina Lill is Heisenberg Professor of Translational Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Münster, Germany, and lecturer at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, UK. She is a medical doctor (M.D.) and an epidemiologist (M.Sc.) by training, with a research focus in neuroscience and neurogenetics. She worked at Harvard Medical School, Charité University Hospital and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Genetics, Berlin, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, and University of Lübeck. Her expertise lies in the molecular epidemiology of complex diseases, predominantly neurodegenerative diseases and quantitative ageing phenotypes. A primary goal of her research is to identify molecular and environmental determinants of these phenotypes, and to decipher how these factors interact in modifying trait variability. Among other projects, she developed and maintained the PDGene database for genetic association studies in Parkinson’s disease, which led to the identification of ITGA8 as one of the first bona-fide GWAS-derived genetic risk loci in Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore, her group has recently begun to lead several international projects to identify multi-omics based biomarker profiles that predict neurodegenerative diseases prior to clinical onset. To reach this goal, Dr. Lill has access to the unique resources of the EPIC cohort (https://epic.iarc.fr), one of the worldwide largest and deeply phenotyped prospective cohorts. Within EPIC she acts as chair of the “Neurodegenerative Diseases” working group. Throughout her career, Dr. Lill received numerous awards, e.g. awards of the German National Merit Foundation and of the German Academic Exchange Service, and the Renate Maass Award for Brain Research.

Related Research:

Adding Genomics and Methylomics to Personalized Disease Prediction for Alzheimer’s Disease (EPIC4AD) Lars Bertram Christina M. Lill 2023-02-28 Personalized Disease Prediction for Alzheimer’s Disease Using Proteome Profiling: The EPIC4AD Study Christina M. Lill Lars Bertram 2021-01-29

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Adding Genomics and Methylomics to Personalized Disease Prediction for Alzheimer’s Disease (EPIC4AD) 2023

$116,684
Personalized Disease Prediction for Alzheimer’s Disease Using Proteome Profiling: The EPIC4AD Study 2020, 2022

$1,001,874

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Hu, M., Robinson, O., Lill, C. M., Matton, A., Puerta, R., Sanz, P., Boada, M., Ruiz, A., Middleton, L., & Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative Plasma Proteomic Signatures for Alzheimer’s Disease: Comparable Accuracy to ATN Biomarkers and Cross-Platform Validation, Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, October 13, 2025, Read More

Demuth, I., Vetter, V. M., Homann, J., Junge, M. P., Regitz-Zagrosek, V., Gerstorf, D., Lill, C. M., & Bertram, L. DunedinPACE predicts incident metabolic syndrome: cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study II, The Journals of Gerontology, August 23, 2025, Read More

Schmid, H., Vetter, V. M., Homann, J., Bahr, V., Lill, C. M., Regitz-Zagrosek, V., Bertram, L., & Demuth, I. Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Relationship Between Sex Hormones and 6 Epigenetic Clocks in Older Adults: Results of the Berlin Aging Study II, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, May 9, 2025, Read More

Vetter, V. M., Demircan, K., Homann, J., Chillon, T. S., Mülleder, M., Shomroni, O., Steinhagen-Thiessen, E., Ralser, M., Lill, C. M., Bertram, L., Schomburg, L., & Demuth, I. Low blood levels of selenium, selenoprotein P and GPx3 are associated with accelerated biological aging: results from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II), Clinical Epigenetics, April 25, 2025, Read More

Deecke, L., Ohlei, O., Goldeck, D., Homann, J., Toepfer, S., Demuth, I., Bertram, L., Pawelec, G., & Lill, C. M. Peripheral Immune Profiles in Individuals at Genetic Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s Disease, Cells, February 10, 2025, Read More

Koetsier, J., Cavill, R., Reijnders, R., Harvey, J., Homann, J., … Dobricic, V., … Scheltens, P., … Zetterberg, H., … Lill, C. L., Bertram, L., … Pishva, E. Blood-based multivariate methylation risk score for cognitive impairment and dementia, Alzheimer's & Dementia, August 28, 2024, Read More

Ohlei, O., Paul, K., Nielsen, S. S., Gmelin, D., Dobricic, V., Altmann, V., Schilling, M., Bronstein, J. M., Franke, A., Wittig, M., Parkkinen, L., Hansen, J., Checkoway, H., Ritz, B., Bertram, L., & Lill, C. M. Genome-wide meta-analysis of short-tandem repeats for Parkinson’s disease risk using genotype imputation, Brain Communications, April 23, 2024, Read More

Homann, J., Osburg, T., Ohlei, O., Dobricic, V., Deecke, L., Bos, I., Vandenberghe, R., Gabel, S., Scheltens, P., Teunissen, C. E., Engelborghs, S., Frisoni, G., Blin, O., Richardson, J. C., Bordet, R., Lleó, A., Alcolea, D., Popp, J., Clark, C., Peyratout, G., Martinez-Lage, P., Tainta, M., Dobson, R.J.B., Legido-Quigley, C., Sleegers, K., Van Broeckhoven, C., Wittig, M., Franke, A., Lill, C.M., Blennow, K., Zetterberg, H., Lovestone, S., Streffer, J., Kate, M., Vos, S. J. B., Barkhof, F., Visser, P. J., & Bertram, L. Genome-Wide Association Study of Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Imaging Biomarkers and Neuropsychological Phenotypes in the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer’s Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery Dataset, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, March 21, 2022, Read More

Dobricic, V., Schilling, M., Farkas, I., Gveric, D. O., Ohlei, O., Schulz, J., Middleton, L., Gentleman, S. M., Parkkinen, L., Bertram, L., & Lill, C. M. Common signatures of differential microRNA expression in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease brains, Brain Communications, October 28, 2022, Read More

Dobricic, V., Schilling, M., Schulz, J., Zhu, L. S., Zhou, C. W., Fuß, J., Franzenburg, S., Zhu, L. Q., Parkkinen, L., Lill, C. M., & Bertram, L. Differential microRNA expression analyses across two brain regions in Alzheimer’s disease, Translational Psychiatry, August 29, 2022, Read More

Youn, C., Grotzinger, A. D., Lill, C. M., Bertram, L., Schmiedek, F., Lövdén, M., Lindenberger, U., Nivard, M., Harden, K. P., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. Genetic associations with learning over 100 days of practice, npj Science of Learning, May 4, 2022, Read More

Lill, C. M., & Bertram, L. Genome-wide analysis furthers decoding of Alzheimer disease genetics, Nature Reviews Neurology, May 27, 2022, Read More

Drewelies, J., Hueluer, G., Duezel, S., Vetter, V. M., Pawelec, G., Steinhagen-Thiessen, E., Wagner, G. G., Lindenberger, U., Lill, C. M., Bertram, L., Gerstorf, D., & Demuth, I. Using blood test parameters to define biological age among older adults: association with morbidity and mortality independent of chronological age validated in two separate birth cohorts, GeroScience, September 24, 2022, Read More

Sommerer, Y., Dobricic, V., Schilling, M., Ohlei, O., Bartrés-Faz, D., Cattaneo, G., Demuth, I., Düzel, S., Franzenburg, S., Fuß, J., Lindenberger, U., Pascual-Leone, Á., Sabet, S. S., Solé-Padullés, C., Tormos, J. M., Vetter, V. M., Wesse, T., Franke, A., Lill, C. M., & Bertram, L. Epigenome-Wide Association Study in Peripheral Tissues Highlights DNA Methylation Profiles Associated with Episodic Memory Performance in Humans, Biomedicines, November 3, 2022, Read More

Sommerer, Y., Dobricic, V., Schilling, M., Ohlei, O., Sabet, S. S., Wesse, T., Fuß, J., Franzenburg, S., Franke, A., Parkkinen, L., Lill, C. M., & Bertram, L. Entorhinal cortex epigenome-wide association study highlights four novel loci showing differential methylation in Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, May 6, 2023, Read More

Schilling, M., & Lill, C. M. MicroRNAs as Molecular Biomarkers for Parkinson’s Disease Progression, Movement Disorders, July 5, 2021, Read More

Lill C. M. Transcriptome-wide Association Study in Frontotemporal Dementia Identifies New Disease Loci by In Silico Analysis, Biological Psychiatry, April 15, 2021, Read More

Sommerer, Y., Ohlei, O., Dobricic, V., Oakley, D. H., Wesse, T., Sedghpour Sabet, S., Demuth, I., Franke, A., Hyman, B. T., Lill, C. M., & Bertram, L. A correlation map of genome-wide DNA methylation patterns between paired human brain and buccal samples, Clinical Epigenetics, November 1, 2022, Read More

Deecke, L., Homann, J., Goldeck, D., Ohlei, O., Dobricic, V., Drewelies, J., Demuth, I., Pawelec, G., Bertram, L., & Lill, C. M. No increase of CD8+ TEMRA cells in the blood of healthy adults at high genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Alzheimer's & Dementia, January 25, 2024, Read More

Neumann, A., Ohlei, O., Küçükali, F., Bos, I. J., Timsina, J., Vos, S., Prokopenko, D., Tijms, B. M., Andreasson, U., Blennow, K., Vandenberghe, R., Scheltens, P., Teunissen, C. E., Engelborghs, S., Frisoni, G. B., Blin, O., Richardson, J. C., Bordet, R., Lleó, A., Alcolea, D., … EMIF-AD & ADNI study group Multivariate GWAS of Alzheimer’s disease CSF biomarker profiles implies GRIN2D in synaptic functioning, Genome Medicine, October 4, 2023, Read More

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