JPND Biological Resource Analysis to Identify New MEchanisms and phenotypes in Neurodegenerative Diseases (BRAIN-MEND)

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Neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, corticobasal degeneration, multiple system atrophy and progressive supranuclear palsy. We currently classify and treat these conditions based on symptoms and clinical findings. Although this approach seems logical it does not take into account the causes of each condition or any overlap between them, which hinders the development of new treatments. A better approach would be to reclassify the different conditions based on their causes, because this would require a deep but different understanding of each condition, and new treatments could then be directly aimed at the cause. This reclassification, new understanding, and exploration of possible treatments, is the idea behind BRAIN-MEND. We will use three innovative approaches, pioneered and developed by the BRAIN-MEND consortium. We will use the latest methods in genetics and epigenetics to identify the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, and which cell systems they affect. We will use a cutting edge technique (based on a method called network analysis) to identify new drug targets from the genetic and epigenetic results. At the same time, will use machine learning to analyse medical literature and patient records to find new or under-recognized clusters of symptoms and other clinical features which might suggest new disease groups. These three different approaches: finding causes, finding drug targets, finding new disease groups, will act to complement each other so we can be sure of any new findings. A key outcome of BRAIN-MEND will be to disentangle the different neurodegenerative diseases, so that for any patient group, we understand how different causes produce the same clinical picture, while in other cases, the same cause can produce different clinical pictures. Having this new way of thinking of neurodegenerative diseases will enhance our understanding of them and make it easier to develop new treatments. Patients and caregivers will be intimately involved throughout the project, through participation in study design, and for example, development of a patient-orientated website. BRAIN-MEND partners are highly qualified to perform the work proposed, with outstanding scientific track records, direct access to the data to be studied, and expertise in the scientific methods that will be used. All the results will be publicized through medical literature, presentation at international conferences, through a consortium blog, through social media, and through the press offices of the institutions involved.