New DNA mapping project to discover causes of MND launched

Today sees the formal launch in Ireland of Project Mine, an ambitious international effort to find the genetic causes of motor neurone disease. It will involve scientists in 14 countries, including Ireland, who will collect patients’ DNA, sequence it and then do comparative studies that will help provide answers about this terrible disease.

Ireland sees 110 new cases of motor neurone disease every year, says Prof Orla Hardiman, who will lead Project Mine activity in Ireland. Scientists are still learning about the disease, but there is undoubtedly a genetic component, hence the need for an initiative such as this.

“The project is based on looking at the population genetics of motor neurone disease; whole genome association studies, ” says Hardiman, a professor of neurology at Trinity College Dublin and a consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital. “It is based on looking at genes, but being able to do this is all about computers, maths and statistics.”

“Ireland is a really good place to do this work; it is good for gene research. It can be easier to do these studies in Ireland because we have larger families and can compare family genes against the wider population.”

The complexity of the genetic background here is also lower than in a country such as the US or mainland Europe.

Only an international effort could tackle such a huge job, says Dr Russell McLaughlin, a postdoctoral research fellow in Trinity’s academic unit of neurology.The genetic resource created by the project will be important not just for motor neurone disease but for research into other conditions. McLaughlin is also involved in a study of irritable bowel syndrome, and the genetic information could be used to study multiple sclerosis, diabetes or Parkinson’s, says Hardiman.

Members of the consortium will share data freely, and so, although we will only pay for a part of the project, we will benefit from having access to all of the resultant data. “We get the data back,” says Vajda. “It is not giving genetic information away, it is bringing it back to us. It represents a new era in gene research. We need to be be involved. We need to be a partner in this to avoid missing out.”

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