Lack of knowledge about the fundamental causes of most common diseases has greatly limited progress in developing better treatments and strategies for the prevention and/or cure of such conditions. To address this problem, it is essential to identify the genetic factors, which predispose to disease.
This project is aimed at developing new research tools to expedite the disease gene discovery process. The research specifically targets Alzheimer disease, inflammatory bowel disease, malignant melanoma, hormone-dependent cancers and osteoporosis. The discoveries emanating from this research is laying the groundwork for identifying the genes responsible for other equally complex diseases and will accelerate efforts to translate genetic discoveries into improved diagnostic tools and therapies.
This project brings together university and hospital-based scientists from Canada, the United States and Europe. Canadian participation includes: Mount Sinai Hospital, the Toronto University Health Network, the University of Toronto, and Sunnybrook and Women’s College Hospital.