ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly - eXTension

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Genomics has become an increasingly important aspect of large clinical trials and cohort studies. Genomic data is an essential component for investigating of the joint contribution of environmental and inherited factors on health and disease during ageing. However, the value of genomic information can rarely be achieved by the analysis of data from a single cohort. Rather, data from multiple cohorts must be combined together into a consortium, to achieve statistical power required for novel gene discovery. Many of prominent genomics consortia involve contribution of genomic data from many different NIH-funded cohorts, for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and meta-analyses. Examples include the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC), and the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). Our study, the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial - and subsequent observational extension study (ASPREE-XT) - have been fortunate to have collected biospecimens via the ASPREE Healthy Ageing Biobank and generated genomic data on a majority of participants (~15,000 healthy older individuals with targeted sequencing and genome-wide SNP data). This information is of now significant value to in the work of our U19 AG062682 in determining the relative and joint impact of lifestyle, genomics and environmental influences on health in an older population. The availability of the genomic datasets also has presented recent opportunities and imperatives for ASPREE-XT to enter genomics consortia, to contribute to gene discovery efforts. The large size and high quality of ASPREE-XT data will make the study a particularly important (& often dominant) component of these consortia. Yet the current resources within ASPREE-XT to participate in a leadership role in these collaborative ventures is limited. Given the significance of the ASPREE-XT contribution, it requires ASPREE-XT investigators taking leadership roles in these consortia – including in the analysis of consortia data and leading publications. Making this type of contribution is proving increasingly complex and time consuming, given the ongoing efforts required in each consortium to attend working groups, contribute intellectually, participate in analyses, papers etc. In this administrative supplement, we are requesting supplemental funding to enable ASPREE-XT investigators to participate fully in these genomics consortia, with a focus on those related to Alzheimer's Dementia, and contribute to scientific outputs. This would improve the exposure and profile of the ASPREE-XT study, and elevate the overall impact and prominence of the ASPREE-XT research program, especially in the area of dementia and Alzheimer's disease genetics, where considerable opportunities exist for ASPREE-XT to make meaningful contributions. The consortia opportunities have mostly emerged only recently (within the past 6-12 months), highlighting the need to build new capacity in this area of genomics for the study, to capitalize on these new opportunities in a timely fashion.