Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have
completed one of the first large-scale studies of the role of common


- While the results fill in some missing pieces of the genetic
puzzle, they are primarily of benefit as a starting point for more
detailed studies. The information generated by the study is now
publicly available in a database that will serve as a valuable
research tool for the future.
The study was led by researchers at the National Institute of Aging
(NIA) and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
(NINDS). The data were derived from blood samples of 267 people with
PD and 270 neurologically normal individuals. These samples were
made available by The NINDS Human Genetics Resource Center at the
Coriell Institute, a publicly-funded bank for human cells, DNA
samples, clinical data, and other information that aims to
accelerate research on genetics of disorders of the nervous system.
Results of the study appear in the September 27, 2006, early online
publication of The Lancet Neurology.

"This is, to my knowledge, the first publicly available genotype
data of this magnitude outside of the International HapMap effort,
and certainly the first disease-linked dataset. I hope that this
will prove to be a valuable resource for future genetics work in
Parkinson's disease, both for our laboratory and for other
researchers around the world," says Andrew Singleton, Ph.D., the NIA
researcher who led the study. "The use of neurologically normal
controls from the NINDS neurogenetics repository means that these
data can be readily used as a control group in future large scale
SNP studies performed in many other neurological diseases."

"The NINDS Human Genetics Resource Center has created a resource
that allows broad sharing and access to phenotypic and genotypic
data, as well as biological samples, with no restrictions. This
approach to open, public sharing of genetic materials and data is
unprecedented. It will allow scientific progress in the field of
genetics to proceed in a much faster way, and in ways we can't even
currently anticipate," says Katrina Gwinn-Hardy, M.D., the NINDS
program contact for the Human Genetics Resource Center and an author
on the paper.

The NIA and the NINDS are components of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) within the Department of Health and Human Services. The
NIH -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27
Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of
Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for
conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for
both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs.


10/02/06(Science Daily)