The University of Washington Genetic Analysis Center (GAC), part of the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health, has been awarded a $1.34 million contract to serve as the coordinating center for the National Institute on Aging's (NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP)—a large group of studies and projects that aim to better understand the genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia.
“The new center is an exciting opportunity for GAC to be part of the very latest research in this important area; Alzheimer's has enormous physical, financial, and social consequences for patients and families,” said Ken Rice, a professor of biostatistics who will lead the coordinating center in collaboration with Anita DeStefano at Boston University and Michael Hawrylycz with the Allen Institute.
“ADSP has been operating since 2012, but to date collaborations between its different components have been organized only informally. The new coordinating center will lead and manage cross-consortium projects, as well as share ADSP’s data and findings with other researchers and the broader community,” said Rice who noted that the award reflects GAC’s national reputation for efficient and effective coordination of large-scale genetic studies.
The new center will also include an education component, offering short courses in data management and analysis for Alzheimer’s investigators through the UW Biostatistics Summer Institutes program.
Funding for the coordinating center contract was awarded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01AG098577.
