Alzheimer's Association Partners with National Institute on Aging on Largest Family Gene Bank for Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's Association
Tuesday, 22 July 2003

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is partnering with the Alzheimer's Association and NIA-supported Alzheimer's Disease Centers in its efforts over the next three years to recruit more than 1000 families in the creation of the largest bank of family genetic material and cell lines to help researchers understand and, ultimately, prevent Alzheimer's disease. Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, Ph.D., associate director of the National Institute on Aging's Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program, will outline the NIA's ambitious Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Genetics Initiative in a presentation at Alzheimer's Association Education Conference taking place at the Chicago Hyatt Regency on Tues., July 22 at 9:30 a.m.

"Genetics remains the gold standard for establishing unequivocally how any human disease begins," said Samuel Gandy, M.D., Ph.D., vice chair of the Alzheimer's Association Medical and Scientific Advisory Council and director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. "The power of genetics comes from its ability to sift through the genes from thousands of individuals with Alzheimer's and find the one (or several) genes that distinguish them from their unaffected relatives."

Families with more than one member affected by AD will be asked to donate blood and provide medical, family and demographic information from both affected and unaffected family members. All genetic information will be completely confidential. Researchers tapping into the bank for genetic material will not be able to identify samples on an individual basis.

The Association will work with the NIA on recruitment. "We are so pleased to be working hand-in-hand with the Association and its nationwide chapter network on such an important effort," says Morrison-Bogorad.

"We have heard from patients and families that research to slow down or prevent AD is their top priority," said Dr. Gandy. "This science is absolutely essential to cracking the cause of common forms of Alzheimer's."

For more information, or to contact Alzheimer's Association, see their website at: www.alz.org