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This new phase of the CRN focuses on understanding the heterogeneity of Parkinson's disease and why it varies from person to person. To this end, research will be advanced to enable more precise diagnostics and the development of improved therapies. Novel resources will be created to enable the global research community to work on a shared, high-quality basis and to overcome technical barriers that currently impede drug development.
For over a decade, Andreas Keller, Professor of Bioinformatics at Saarland University, and his team have been researching neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Their work focuses on microRNAs, which are short, non-coding segments of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that regulate the translation of genetic information within cells. 'Analysing them generates huge amounts of sequencing data, which we process using our bioinformatics methods. As part of the newly approved funding, we will have access to over a hundred terabytes of data from Parkinson's patients,' explains Andreas Keller. Using artificial intelligence, his team will analyse this data to find novel RNA-based therapeutic candidates for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
'Based on our analyses, we will propose RNA candidates suitable for therapeutic development. Our research partners at the Weizmann Institute in Israel and at Columbia University in the USA will then test these in cellular models. If the results are promising, we will investigate them further in preclinical studies with a view to progressing as quickly as possible towards clinical applications,' says bioinformatician Andreas Keller, who also heads a research group at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland.
Parkinson's disease is shaped by multiple interacting factors. Biological characteristics such as age and gender influence the risk of developing the disease and its progression, yet they have often not been given sufficient consideration in molecular research to date. 'At the same time, cell type, genetic background, and environmental influences contribute to its complexity. They also affect disease progression and how patients respond to treatment,' explains Keller. Even within a single cell type, Parkinson's disease can exhibit different molecular patterns influenced by these factors. 'We expect to identify patterns within these large-scale datasets that will enable us to develop more effective and personalized drug therapies. We are already benefiting today from large datasets containing information on people with Parkinson's disease, including blood samples, cerebrospinal fluid analyses and brain tissue data from deceased patients,' he adds.
Using AI-supported methods developed over many years, the bioinformatics team in Saarbrücken will analyse these Parkinson's datasets and correlate them with information on age groups and gender. The goal is to create a comprehensive, freely accessible molecular knowledge base for Parkinson's disease, which will assist further research within the newly funded network. Key partners include Tal Iram and her team at the Weizmann Institute in Tel Aviv, as well as Philip De Jager, Vilas Menon and their respective teams at Columbia University in New York. The US$9 million grant (approximately €7.7 million) from ASAP will be awarded primarily to Saarland University.
Further information:
https://www.asapcrn.org/funding/
https://www.ccb.uni-saarland.de/
https://www.helmholtz-hips.de/de/forschung/people/person/prof-dr-andreas-keller/
Press photographs that can be used free of charge with this press release can be found at the bottom of the following web page.
For further information, please contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Keller
Tel. +49 681 302 68611
Email: andreas.keller(at)ccb.uni-saarland.de