Genome wide analysis of Young Onset Parkinson disease in Wales

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Parkinson disease (PD) involves wearing down of brain cells, which leads to tremor and slowness of movement. At the moment there are no treatments which prevent the damage to nerve cell function. Although PD is not usually a familial disease we now know that genetic variation can be important in some patients. This is probably particularly important in people who develop PD at a young age. The genetic code contains the information which controls the development and function of all the cells in the body and variation in this code can increase the risk of developing disease. We have access to new technology (DNA chips) which allows the measurement of a large number of DNA variants (over 550,000) every 5000 letters, through the entire human genome. We will use these chips to map variation that occurs frequently in patients with young onset PD in an attempt to discover new genes that can cause PD. This information will be useful for the diagnosis of PD and in advising patients on the risk to family members. Ultimately we hope that the identification of the disease pathway, through disease genes, will lead to new treatments.