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NEW COLLABORATION TO UNCOVER ALS GENES ANNOUNCED A just-announced collaboration between an Icelandic genomics company and a team led by a Packard Center scientist offers a unique way to search for ALS genes - either those that lead directly to the disease or those that might predispose people to get it. The company, called deCode genetics, specializes in finding genes for common diseases, with an eye to developing therapy. So far, deCode has located genes involved in more than 20 illnesses. Several of these genes, including those implicated in the common form of stroke, another linked with schizophrenia, and a third that triples a woman's risk for osteoporosis, have been shown to play a key role in the biology of these illnesses. DeCode has created the largest genotyping facility in the world, creating DNA fingerprints on patients and controls. They have also developed informatics systems and statistical algorithms to find genetic patterns that flag disease genes. "Much of the company's success stems from their ability to quickly generate high density DNA fingerprints in participating patients and their family members. It lets them match genetic fingerprints with specific diseases and follow them as they flow through the families," says Packard Center scientist Jonathan Glass, who's collaborating with the deCode researchers. "But for ALS research," he says, "We're more interested in the gene-spotting tools they've developed." deCode has isolated more than 20,000 markers - distinctive patterns in the human genome - that serve as reference points. "By collecting a person's DNA and singling out the markers, you get a distinctive genetic fingerprint," Glass says. The hope is to find that similar fingerprints pop up again and again in ALS patients but not in those without the disease. That would highlight a specific stretch of DNA that's suspect, one that might carry a gene that needs to be investigated. This summer, deCode allied itself with the Emory University School of Medicine, where Glass is a neurologist/researcher, for a large-scale gene-hunt focusing on many common diseases. "ALS is relatively rare. Still, we approached deCode about ALS," says Glass, and now it's a project funded by the Packard Center to bring together clinician-scientists and their patients across the country. "If you look at ALS in general," he says, "it certainly doesn't look like a genetic disease. We know, of course, about the more rare inherited forms. But sporadic ALS truly seems to be sporadic. Still, other sporadic disorders, like Alzheimer's, have genes that predispose people to the disease. We're trying to see if that's the case here." The task ahead, he says, is to collect blood samples nationwide, where
as many as 400 patients and their parents will donate a sample for DNA
testing. "We'll get the word out when we're ready to do that,"
Glass says. |
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