| Robert,
We are excited to announce a new Parkinson's Community collaboration with Genentech, which will be announced publicly on Tuesday.
Genentech has an excellent track record for taking scientific data and turning it into scientific breakthroughs, which has led to successful new treatments. In fact, Genentech has published widely on LRRK2, which demonstrates their ongoing commitment to finding better Parkinson's treatments and ultimately, a cure.
The goal of this initiative will be to identify new drug targets and new therapies by analyzing whole genome sequence data from more than 3,000 individuals in the 23andMe Parkinson's Community. To date, we have only analyzed approximately 750,000 genetic data points in any given individual's genome (you were genotyped, not fully sequenced). This new, whole genome sequencing, will allow us to review 3 billion genetic data points within the genome of each participant. For those who want to participate, a new consent form will be required.
Historically, sequencing on this scale would have been prohibitively expensive, but recent advances in technology have made it more accessible. With this additional sequence data, we hope to learn more about Parkinson's, including the identification of new genes associated with the disease as well as new mutations in known risk genes like LRRK2. 23andMe will have an internal team of researchers dedicated to this important initiative in 2015.
We will be reaching out to you shortly with more information on how you can participate, so there is no need to contact us today.
We look forward to working with you and Genentech in 2015 and hope you find this announcement as exciting as we do.
Paul Cannon 23andMe Research/PD Community
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