Carlos Cruchaga
Barbara Burton & Reuben Morriss III Professor
- Phone: 314-286-0546
- Email: cruchagac@nospam.wustl.edu
Additional Titles & Roles
- Professor of Neurology
- Professor of Genetics
- Professor of Genetics
- Professor of Neurology
- Knight-ADRC Genetics and Hight-throughput Omics Core leader
- DIAN (The Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network) Genetics Core co-leader
- Scientific advisor McDonnell Genome Institute (MGI)
- Director NeuroGenomics and Informatics lab
Education & Training
- Ph.D.: University of Navarra, 2005
- M.S.: University of Navarra, 2002
- B.S.: University of Navarra, 2000
Research Interests
Dr. Cruchaga is a human genomicist with expertise in multiomics, informatics, and neurodegeneration. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2005 at the University of Navarra in Spain. During his first postdoc with Dr. Pastor he conducted statistical human genetics studies focused on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). He then moved to Dr. Goate’s Lab to complete his training in quantitative human genomics. Dr. Cruchaga established his laboratory at Washington University in 2011 to study the genetic architecture of neurodegenerative diseases. His interests are focused on using human genomic and other -omic data (proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics) to identify and understand the biological processes that lead to AD, PD, frontotemporal dementia, and other neurodegenerative processes. He is the founding director of the NeuroGenomics and Informatics Center at Washington University.
Recent Publications
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Genome-wide association study of copy number variations in Parkinson’s disease
the Global Parkinson Genetics Program (GP2) & Comprehensive Unbiased Risk Factor Assessment for Genetics and Environment in Parkinson’s Disease (COURAGE-PD) consortium, Dec 2026, In: npj Parkinson’s Disease. 12, 1, 160.
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Author Correction: TMEM175, SCARB2 and CTSB associations with Parkinson’s disease risk across populations (npj Parkinson’s Disease, (2025), 11, 1, (348), 10.1038/s41531-025-01180-z)
the Global Parkinson’s Genetic Program (GP2), Dec 2026, In: npj Parkinson’s Disease. 12, 1, 93.
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Unraveling the genetic architecture of non-Huntington chorea: a biobank-scale study of rare variants and repeat expansions
Spanish Study Group for Genetics of Chorea members, Dec 2026, In: npj Genomic Medicine. 11, 1, 33.
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Genetic modifiers of APOE-ε4-associated cognitive decline
The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), Alzheimer’s Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) & The Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP), Dec 2026, In: Nature communications. 17, 1, 2982.
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Early syndecan-4 upregulation predicts cognitive and pathological trajectories in Alzheimer disease
Tarawneh, R., Moulder, K. L., Topouza, D. G., Kar, A., Qian, H. T., Pankratz, V. S., Timsina, J., Franklin, E. E., Schindler, S. E., Perrin, R. J., Ances, B. M., Benzinger, T. L. S., Hassenstab, J., Morris, J. C., Holtzman, D. M. & Cruchaga, C., Dec 2026, In: Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy. 18, 1, 152.