NIH awards funds for new Alzheimer's studies

The National Institutes of Health has awarded eight academic medical centers with funds to conduct research into the genetic underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease, specifically analyzing how genome sequences may contribute to increased risk or disease protection.

The awarded academic medical centers include: the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; the University of Miami; Columbia University, New York City; Boston University; the University of Washington, Seattle; Washington University in St. Louis; and the University of Texas, Houston.

The awards are expected to total $24 million over 4 years.

“We are delighted to support the important research being accomplished under this broad-based, collaborative effort,” National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, said in a press release. “This team effort is vital to advancing a deeper understanding of the genetic variants involved in this complex and devastating disease and to the shared goal of finding targets for effective interventions.”

Data generated during the first phase of the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) will be analyzed.

“Working closely with our [National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)] colleagues to build, store and make freely accessible to researchers the ADSP datasets, we have opened up new avenues for research,” National Institute on Aging Director Richard J. Hodes, MD, said in the release. “Building on that cache of data, we have moved quickly to this next state of analyzing data in new and innovative ways.

The projects will include:

The Consortium for Alzheimer’s Sequence Analysis,
Genome mapping in families affected with Alzheimer’s disease,
Protective gene variants,
Risk and protective genes and the Alzheimer’s phenotype,
And identifying risk-raising and protective copy number variations.

“The ADSP data generated over the last 2 years are now paving the way for cutting-edge investigations that may lead to new targets for drug development,” NHGRI Director Eric D. Green, MD, PhD, said in the release. “The upcoming data analyses will be pivotal for realizing that vision.”