Newswise — NEW YORK, NY (June 7, 2014) — Researchers from Columbia University’s Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain and Departments of Neurology, Epidemiology, and Systems Biology are part of a five-university collaboration receiving a $12.6 million, four-year grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to identify rare genetic variants that may either protect against, or contribute to Alzheimer’s disease risk.

At Columbia, the Consortium for Alzheimer’s Sequence Analysis (CASA), is led by principal investigator Richard Mayeux, MD, MSc, chair of neurology and the Gertrude H. Sergievesky Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center. Other Columbia co-investigators include Christiane Reitz, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at the Taub Institute, and Badri Vardarajan, PhD, an assistant professor of bioinformatics in the Departments of Neurology and Systems Biology.

CASA investigators will analyze whole exome and whole genome sequence data generated during the first phase of the NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Program, an innovative collaboration that began in 2012 between NIA and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), also part of NIH. They will analyze data from 6,000 volunteers with Alzheimer disease and 5,000 older individuals who did not have the disease. In addition, they will study genomic data from 111 large families with multiple Alzheimer disease members, mostly of Caucasian and Caribbean Hispanic descent to identify rare genetic variants.

“Identifying variants in genes related to Alzheimer’s disease will enable the CASA team to search for therapeutic targets that might one day reduce the economic and human burden caused by this devastating disease,” said Dr. Mayeux. “This is an exciting opportunity to apply new genomic analyses and technologies to improve our understanding of the biological pathways underlying this disease.”

Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, has become an epidemic that currently affects as many as five million people age 65 and older in the United States, with economic costs that are comparable to, if not greater than, caring for those of heart disease or cancer. Available drugs only marginally affect disease severity and progression. While there is no way to prevent this disease, the discovery of genetic risk factors for Alzheimer’s is bringing researchers closer to learning how the genes work together and may help identify the most effective interventions. This effort is critical to accomplishing the genetic research goals outlined in the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, first announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in May 2012 and updated annually. Developed under the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, the Plan provides a framework for a coordinated and concentrated effort in research, care, and services for Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Its primary research goal is to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025.

With the current award, CASA joins the NHGRI Large-Scale Sequencing and Analysis Centers program, an NIH-supported consortium that provides large-scale sequence datasets and analysis to the biomedical community. CASA researchers will facilitate the analyses of all Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) and additional non-ADSP sequence data to detect protective and risk variants for Alzheimer disease.

“We are delighted to support the important research being accomplished under this broad-based, collaborative effort. A team effort is vital to advancing a deeper understanding of the genetic variants involved in this complex and devastating disease and to the shared goal of finding targets for effective interventions,” said NIH Director Francis Collins.

“This grant, which represents major support for the critical field of Alzheimer’s research, underlines the collaborative nature of science,” said Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, the Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor of the University and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at Columbia. “It could help lead to the preventive and therapeutic advances that patients and families so desperately await.”

CASA is a collaboration of Columbia and four other American universities. Jonathan Haines, PhD will lead the project at Case Western Reserve University, Richard Mayeux, MD at Columbia University, Margaret Pericak-Vance, PhD, at the University of Miami, and Gerard D. Schellenberg, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania, and Lindsay Farrar, PhD at Boston University.

This research is supported by the NIA grant (UF1-AG047133).

The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center is a multidisciplinary group that has forged links between researchers and clinicians to uncover the causes of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other age-related brain diseases and to discover ways to prevent and cure these diseases. It has partnered with the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center, which was established by an endowment in 1977 to focus on diseases of the nervous system, and with the Departments of Pathology & Cell Biology and of Neurology to allow the seamless integration of genetic analysis, molecular and cellular studies, and clinical investigation to explore all phases of diseases of the nervous system. For more information, visit The Taub Institute at http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/taub/.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.

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UF1-AG047133