Abstract: Methods for diagnosis or prognosis of late onset Alzheimer disease in an individual are provided which comprise detecting at least one polymorphism of a low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein 6 gene.

Abstract: Methods are provided for increasing stem cells, hematopoietic progenitor/stem cells, mesenchymal progenitor/stem cells, mesodermal progenitor/stem cells, muscle progenitor/stem cells, or neural progenitor/stem cells in vivo in a mammalian subject. Methods are also provided for treating an immune related disease, a mesenchymal/mesoderm degenerative disease, or a neurodegenerative disease in a mammalian subject in need thereof.

Abstract: In a first aspect, the invention provides expression vectors comprising: (a) a first RNA polymerase III promoter operably associated with a first RNA polymerase III termination signal and (b) a second RNA polymerase III promoter operably associated with a second RNA polymerase III termination signal, wherein the first and second RNA polymerase III promoters are oriented to promote bidirectional transcription of an insert disposed between the first and the second RNA polymerase III termination signals. In other aspects, the invention provide methods for using these expression vectors for inhibiting expression of target genes, for determining the effect of siRNAs on biological processes, and for identifying siRNAs that affect biological processes.