Complex Disease Network

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease with a variety of genetic and environmental factors contributing to this disease. In the past decade, great progress has been made in identifying genetic risk for complex PD (or sporadic/idiopathic PD). Using genome-wide association studies (GWAS), around 90 independent risk factors have been identified, including widely known variants in gene regions from GBA, LRRK2, and SNCA.

We aim to dramatically expand this work and identify and dissect the genetic risk underlying PD by genotyping >150,000 DNA samples with a specific focus on underrepresented populations. By forming a large network of researchers across the globe that will provide data and DNA samples and by allowing open and democratic access to data, we hope to accelerate scientific discovery in PD. Our main mission is coordinating and organizing the complex arm of GP2, comprised of the groups Cohort Integration and Data Analysis.