NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Consumer genomics firm 23andMe said today that it will collaborate with the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center in an effort aimed at advancing methods for clinical and epidemiological research into Parkinson’s disease.
Under the collaboration, which is receiving financial support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, patients of the Parkinson’s Institute will voluntarily enroll in 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service. 23andMe anticipates that the DNA submitted for genomic scanning will generate more than 580,000 data points per patient.
In addition, patients will provide specific information about individual environmental exposures, family history, disease progression, and treatment response.
23andMe and the institute will develop web-based clinical assessment tools that can be administered to online communities, they said in a joint statement. Patients’ risk factors and clinical data will be merged with their genetic data to conduct research into Parkinson’s disease.
The partners also said that they will develop and administer new surveys to an increasing number of participants, which will generate new risk-factor and clinical data for comparison with the existing genetic data.
"By building a social network for the Parkinson's disease community, and combining it with the world-class expertise of Parkinson's Institute researchers, we hope to establish an entirely new paradigm for how genetic research is conducted that actively involves the patient,” Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe, said in a statement.