Today the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Initiative announced its first resource: the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2), led by NIH Distinguished Investigator Dr. Andrew Singleton. The five-year program will leverage existing consortia and cohorts to genotype more than 150,000 volunteers around the world — people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) or risk factors and control volunteers — to further understand the genetic architecture of this disease. Importantly, this program will integrate ancestrally diverse populations from around the world, addressing a large gap in our knowledge of PD. The underlying data, analytical processes, and results from GP2 will be made available to the research community as quickly as possible, with minimum of barriers to access and use.
This program is the first resource project from ASAP, which has developed an ambitious roadmap to tackle key scientific challenges in Parkinson’s disease by supporting meaningful, multidisciplinary collaboration; generating research-enabling resources; and democratizing data. GP2 serves each ASAP goal and will be a valuable resource for the entire neurodegeneration community.
Separate from GP2, ASAP is currently accepting funding applications from multidisciplinary teams to support studies on the Biology of PD-associated Genes and Neuro-immune Interactions. The deadline for pre-proposals is January 8, 2020.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is an active partner in the implementation of both the ASAP RFA and GP2. Email [email protected] with questions on either program.
