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During Parkinson’s Awareness Month, we’ll be highlighting promising research and new findings in the fight against Parkinson’s.
Along the way we hope to boost enrollment in 23andMe’s <a href="https://www.23andme.com/pd/">Parkinson’s Research Community</a> past 7,500 people, getting us that much closer to our ultimate goal of 10,000 people in the community. Enroll and you’ll be in good company &#8212; boxing legend Muhammad Ali, who has Parkinson’s, <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/press/pdandali/">recently joined</a> 23andMe’s fight against the disease.
In the coming weeks we’ll be writing about the state of the science in Parkinson’s research, we’ll roll out surprising associations between the disease and certain traits, as well as hear from fascinating people living with the disease. All this is not just to draw attention to genetic research, but also to remind people what it means to live with Parkinson’s.
Each year there are more than 50,000 cases of Parkinson’s diagnosed, adding to the more than one million people living with the disease in the United States. Worldwide there are an estimated four to six million people with Parkinson’s, but taking action now to find a cause and cure for the disease could help not just those with the disease but people who may develop Parkinson’s in the future.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Don&#8217;t Have Parkinson&#8217;s? 
Even if you don’t have Parkinson’s you can help simply by becoming a customer at 23andMe who consents to research and completes surveys. It’s as easy as that. Recently our scientists found a genetic variant that appears to be protective against Parkinson’s, a discovery that wouldn’t have been possible without participation from people who don’t have the disease. Plus, you can learn about your own health and ancestry through the 23andMe Personal Genome Service ®.</div>
Together with our Parkinson’s Research Community, and our partners like<a href="http://www.michaeljfox.org/"> The Michael J. Fox Foundation</a>,<a href="http://www.thepi.org/"> The Parkinson’s Institute</a> and<a href="http://www.parkinson.org/"> The National Parkinson Foundation</a>, 23andMe has already made some promising findings. We’ve discovered <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002141">new genetic associations</a>, replicated 20 other known associations and found a genetic variant that<a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/press/sgk1/"> may be protective</a> against the disease – all that in just a year’s time. This is just the beginning.
As Senator Debbie Stabenow, the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Parkinson&#8217;s Disease, said when the Senate <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2012-03-29/html/CREC-2012-03-29-pt1-PgS2259.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">passed a resolution</a> making April &#8220;Parkinson&#8217;s Awareness Month,&#8221; the focus in the coming weeks is meant to &#8220;honor those who live with Parkinson&#8217;s and encourage those conducting the medical research that could hold the key to new breakthrough treatments.&#8221;
You can help. If you have Parkinson’s disease please <a href="https://www.23andme.com/pd">join the 23andMe Parkinson’s Research Community</a> and participate in research that will help speed discoveries. If you know someone with Parkinson’s, let him or her know what we’re doing. Participation is free and you could play a role in making breakthroughs that help you and others with Parkinson’s. There’s also the fun of being part of the broader 23andMe Community, where you can explore your genetics and ancestry.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

Parkinson’s Awareness Month 2012

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-3091" title="pd" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pd.png" alt="" width="315" height="256" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pd.png 315w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/pd-300x244.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 315px) 100vw, 315px" />
By Nick Eriksson, 23andMe Principal Scientist, and Lizzie Dorfman, Parkinson&#8217;s Research Project Manager
Less than a year ago we announced the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/press/20090312/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">launch of the 23andMe Parkinson’s Research Initiative</a>. Since then, we have built one of the world&#8217;s most useful resources for studying the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2009/03/19/understanding-the-genetics-of-parkinsons-disease-a-work-in-progress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">genetics of Parkinson&#8217;s disease</a>.
This past December we had meetings with the <a href="http://www.nih.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Institutes of Health</a>, <a href="http://www.fastercures.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FasterCures</a>, pharmaceutical companies and several key Parkinson’s geneticists to discuss our research. The feedback was unequivocally positive. We are thrilled by the progress we’ve made and wanted to make sure to publicly share some of our most significant accomplishments to date, as well as a preview of what is to come.
<h6>Progress on Recruitment</h6>
So far, more than 3,500 people with Parkinson&#8217;s disease from 49 U.S. states and 17 countries have submitted saliva samples for genetic analysis and carefully answered more than 30,000 online surveys to help with our research. Our genetic database now includes many important subgroups of Parkinson&#8217;s patients, each presenting a tremendous opportunity for current and future research.
These include a large group of people with early-onset Parkinson’s (â‰¤50 years old at diagnosis), carriers of extremely rare mutations that are known to strongly predispose a person for the disease, and people with a family history of Parkinson&#8217;s with no known cause. We&#8217;ve also had an incredible response from our other communities: more than 8,000 people without Parkinson&#8217;s have taken our Parkinson’s surveys so that they can be included in our studies as crucial control subjects.
<h6>Unique Research Model</h6>
An important aspect of research at 23andMe, one that distinguishes us from many other research programs, is the way we collect information about the health, activities and environment of our participants.   Traditional methods of data collection &#8212; for example, using an existing medical record or a meeting between a researcher and each participant &#8212; can be costly, time-consuming and limit the number of people willing and able to participate.
In contrast, 23andMe utilizes simple online surveys that can be completed anywhere at anytime.   This allows people from all over the world to easily participate in our research on an on-going basis. Because this is a new way of collecting data, we&#8217;ve taken special care to make sure that the information we collect is accurate.   Careful analysis has indicated that the survey answers our participants have been providing are of very high quality.
<h6>How can we tell?</h6>
Well, one example is that we&#8217;ve independently identified many of the same genetic markers previously found by other Parkinson&#8217;s researchers.   Even the magnitude of the effects we&#8217;ve found are similar to what other research groups have seen.
For example, the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/2009/11/17/snpwatch-common-genetic-variants-associated-with-risk-for-parkinsons-disease-identified-in-asian-and-european-populations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">published literature</a> has shown that each copy of a G at SNP rs393152 near the MAPT gene reduces the odds of Parkinson&#8217;s by 0.23 times. This is very similar to what we&#8217;ve seen in our data: we found that each G reduced the odds of Parkinson&#8217;s by 0.21 times. Each G at rs2736990 near the SNCA gene has been shown to increase the odds of Parkinson&#8217;s by 1.23 times. We found an increase of 1.28 times for each G .
In addition, we&#8217;ve also replicated the known associations between the LRRK2 and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Search&amp;db=pubmed&amp;term=19846850" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GBA</a> genes and Parkinson&#8217;s. All of these results are important and exciting evidence that our revolutionary new way of conducting research is a viable alternative to traditional methods.
<h6>Verifying Other Findings</h6>
Thanks to the detailed information that has been contributed by everyone participating in the 23andMe Parkinson&#8217;s community, we&#8217;ve also been able to verify some things about Parkinson&#8217;s that aren&#8217;t genetic. For example, we see that <a href="https://www.23andme.com/health/Parkinsons-Disease/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">LRRK2 G2019S</a> carriers who have Parkinson&#8217;s disease show fewer symptoms than other patients when adjusted for duration of the disease, age of onset, and sex.
This is similar to the result in a paper published by other researchers in the journal <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18539534" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lancet Neurology</a> in 2008. The survey answers we&#8217;ve collected are also able to divide our participants into the classically observed   tremor dominant and postural instability gait difficulty (PIGD) subtypes of Parkinson&#8217;s. These and other similar results provide further support for our web-based paradigm for conducting clinical research.
<h6>Collaborators</h6>
We are currently working with the <a href="http://www.thepi.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Parkinson&#8217;s Institute</a>, with funding from the <a href="http://www.michaeljfox.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael J. Fox Foundation</a>, on a <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/press/20080514/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">long term project</a> to formally show that Parkinson&#8217;s disease data collected online is as good as data collected in a clinical setting.
We&#8217;re very excited about the possibilities of the data we&#8217;ve collected from the Parkinson&#8217;s Disease Research Initiative. We&#8217;re in the process of writing up some of the results we&#8217;ve shared here, along with some others, and will soon submit papers on Parkinson&#8217;s Disease genetics to peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Also in store for the year ahead: continued recruitment, new research surveys, cutting-edge and exploratory data analysis techniques and new research collaborations. We&#8217;ll be sure to keep sharing our progress.
We would also like to express our thanks for the support and outreach efforts of several organizations. Since our launch we&#8217;ve been honored to work with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and The Parkinson&#8217;s Institute and Clinical Center. Over the last year we have been thrilled to add the support of <a href="http://www.parkinson.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The National Parkinson Foundation</a>, <a href="http://www.patientslikeme.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">PatientsLikeMe</a>, <a href="http://www.nwpf.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Northwest Parkinson&#8217;s Foundation</a> and <a href="http://www.cureparkinsons.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Cure Parkinson&#8217;s Trust</a>, among others.
Speaking of outreach, it&#8217;s not too late to join in our efforts and help us make even more discoveries.   If you have been diagnosed with Parkinson&#8217;s disease, all it takes to join our research initiative is $25, a small saliva sample and the ability to answer online surveys. Learn more and request a discount code here: <a href="https://www.23andme.com/pd/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.23andme.com/pd/</a>.

Nick Eriksson

23andMe Parkinson’s Research Initiative Progress Update

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We&#8217;ve set out to build the world&#8217;s largest online PD genetics community, and we&#8217;re thrilled to report that more than 2,000 people have enrolled &nbsp;since the initiative was launched last month. Owing to tremendous support from <a href="http://thepi.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Parkinson&#8217;s Institute</a> and Clinical Center and <a href="http://www.michaeljfox.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Michael J. Fox Foundation</a>, their networks of patients have responded overwhelmingly. Assembling this many participants for traditional research studies usually takes months, if not years, to accomplish – by harnessing the power of the web and the enthusiasm of individuals, 23andMe can dramatically change the pace of research.

This puts us well on the way to our goal of enabling 10,000 individuals to help advance research into the genetics and other aspects of the condition. With this number of participants, we hope to be able to make discoveries about aspects of the causes, progression and treatment of Parkinson&#8217;s that smaller studies simply haven&#8217;t had the power to detect.
As members of the community, PD patients receive the the 23andMe Personal Genome Serviceâ„¢ &nbsp; for $25 instead of the usual $399. Along with all the <a href="https://www.23andme.com/howitworks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">benefits</a> of the service, the Parkinson&#8217;s community gives members:
<ul>
<li>research surveys aimed at gathering each patient&#8217;s experience with the disease, including age of onset, rate of progression and response to therapies.</li>
<li>the opportunity to ask questions and share stories with other members.</li>
<li>PD-specific reports relating to currently known genetic correlations.</li>
</ul>
Individuals who have been diagnosed with PD can sign up to participate via the website of the &nbsp;Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Even if you don&#8217;t have Parkinson&#8217;s, anyone can help with this research by setting up a free &nbsp;<a href="https://www.23andme.com/user/signup/" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">23andMe demo account</a> and taking the Parkinson&#8217;s background survey. &nbsp;And, of course, 23andMe customers are encouraged to join the effort by filling out the survey, too. &nbsp;Together, we&#8217;re changing the pace of research!

Michael J. Fox Foundation — Page 4

Parkinson’s Awareness Month 2012

23andMe Parkinson’s Research Initiative Progress Update

On Our Way to 10,000: 23andMe Welcomes First Members of Parkinson’s Disease Community

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