Revolutionary New Project Will Obtain Complete Genetic Information on Largest Group for a Single Disease — Alzheimer’s
The first, pioneering “Big Data” project for Alzheimer’s disease was announced today by a visionary new partnership. New research funding from the Alzheimer’s Association and the Brin Wojcicki Foundation will enable scientists to obtain whole genome sequences on the largest group of individuals related to a single disease – more than 800 people enrolled in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).
“The movement to find preventions and a cure for Alzheimer’s will soon take a significant step forward,” said Harry Johns, Alzheimer’s Association President and CEO. “This new initiative will rapidly create an unprecedented tool for researchers to create a world without Alzheimer’s.”
The goal of ADNI is to identify and understand markers of Alzheimer’s disease in body fluids, structural changes in the brain, and measures of memory; the hope is to improve early diagnosis and accelerate the discovery of new treatments. Whole genome sequencing determines all 6 billion letters in an individual’s DNA in one comprehensive analysis. Scientific leaders directing this project emphasize the potentially groundbreaking importance of the ability to match existing data from ADNI with the newly-generated gene sequence data.
A distinguishing feature of ADNI is that its research data are made freely available without delay to scientists around the globe. Once the genome sequences are completed – roughly 16 weeks after the sequencing project starts – the raw data will rapidly be made available to qualified scientists worldwide. Leveraging the power of global collaboration, researchers will be able to mine the data for novel targets for risk assessment, new therapies and much-needed insight into the causes of the devastating brain disease.
This new project is a significant extension of ADNI, which is a public-private research project led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and funded with private sector support. Launched in 2004, ADNI’s public-private funding consortium includes pharmaceutical companies, science-related businesses and nonprofit organizations including the Alzheimer’s Association.
The Brin Wojcicki Foundation was established by Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, and Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder of 23andMe, a leading personal genetics company.
Ridding the world of Alzheimer’s disease is a global challenge of the utmost importance. Together with our partners, the Association is taking an important new step with this investment.
