Major grant for studying the link between neurodevelopmental conditions and neurodegenerative diseases
A group of researchers at Karolinska Institutet, among other universities, are involved in a multinational project awarded 4 million US Dollars to investigate the link between neurodevelopmental conditions and neurodegenerative diseases. The award is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke (NINDS).
New studies suggest that people with autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability may be at risk of getting serious diseases like dementia, Parkinson's, and ALS when they get older. To learn more and try to lower the risk, a big multinational study is launched, to look at information about families and genes and analyze data from different places.
The study is led by Brian Lee, associate professor of epidemiology at Drexel University and affiliate researcher at KI and the Department of Global Public Health. Other researchers from Karolinska Institutet who also are involved in the project are Fang Fang at Institute of Environmental Medicine, Renee Gardner, and Viktor H Ahlqvist at Department of Global Public Health.
"We are honored to receive this NIH grant for this study, which will help us gain a more comprehensive understanding of the natural history and genetic links between neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Ultimately, this may inform if and how we can help people," says Brian K Lee.
The grant enables cutting-edge multinational data sources.
This NIH grant spans over five years and provides critical funding for the study, enabling formalize the multinational collaboration bringing together researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Aarhus, University in Denmark, and Drexel University, University of Pittsburgh, and Rush University in the USA.
“With this grant, we will be able to build ground-breaking data sources across Sweden, Denmark, and the UK and conduct comprehensive epidemiological and genetic analyses to characterize the natural history and familial aggregation of these conditions,” Says Brian K Lee.
The study will combine epidemiological and genetic data to investigate the natural history and familial patterns of these conditions, explore genetic links between them, and identify promising targets for intervention. By analyzing data from different countries and sources, the pressing question of whether neurodevelopmental conditions truly increase the risk of later-life neurodegenerative disorders hopefully could be answered.