Indiana University School of Medicine will serve as the coordinating center for this grant as it did for the initial funding.
The original grant for $6 million in 1998 initiated the largest nationwide study ever conducted on the genetics of the neurodegenerative disease. The study, called Parkinson's Research: The Organized Genetic Initiative (PROGENI) enrolled 600 sibling pairs with the disease from 58 Parkinson's Study Group centers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
During the first five years, PROGENI researchers determined that a gene known as the parkin gene may indicate a risk factor for developing Parkinson's disease in older adults when one of the two gene pairs is abnormal. Previously, it was believed that the parkin gene only was involved in the development of juvenile Parkinson's disease and only when both copies of the parkin genes were abnormal.
Researchers also narrowed the field of potential genes and believe they have found a gene on chromosome two that may be important in the development of the disease in families with multiple affected members.
"We also have tantalizing hints on the X chromosome, which may be of more importance to men with the disease," said Tatiana Foroud, Ph.D., associate professor of medical and molecular genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the principal investigator for the nationwide PROGENI study.
The discovery of multiple genes that may have an impact on the onset of Parkinson's disease on patients who develop the disease at different ages and in families with multiple affected members is a new development.
"That's how far we've come," said Dr. Foroud. "Five years ago, we had to seriously argue that Parkinson's was genetic to obtain the
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Contact: Mary Hardin
mhardin@iupui.edu
317-274-7722
Indiana University
12-Feb-2004