Monique M. B. Breteler

Prof. Dr. Dr. Monique M. B. Breteler serves as Director of Population Health Research at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, affiliated with the University of Bonn's Faculty of Medicine. Her work focuses on understanding the determinants of health across the lifespan, with particular emphasis on neurodegenerative and age-related diseases through quantitative empirical research.

Dr. Breteler's research program encompasses multiple critical domains in population neuroscience:

• Etiological research identifying causes and causal mechanisms of diseases
• Development of biomarkers for early disease detection
• Advanced brain imaging techniques for assessing brain structure and function
• Integration of multi-omics data (genomic, epigenomic, metabolomic, microbiome)
• Exposome research examining environmental and lifestyle factors
• Pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacogenomics investigations

She leads the Rhineland Study, a major population-based prospective cohort with over 10,000 participants that employs deep phenotyping including behavioral testing, cardiovascular measurements, sensory assessments, medical history, lifestyle factors, and comprehensive omics data collection. The study utilizes advanced one-hour MRI protocols and collaborates with computational data scientists to analyze high-dimensional multimodal data.

Dr. Breteler's research group actively participates in national and international consortia including the CHARGE Consortium and the German COVID-19 Omics Initiative, contributing their rich dataset to broader scientific efforts in aging and disease research.