A public-private Alzheimer’s disease research consortium has christened its open-access research gateway, hoping to speed drug development by sharing data.
The Accelerating Medicines Partnership-Alzheimer’s Disease Knowledge Portal ( AMP-AD ) provides access to data from four large translational research projects that are investigating novel therapeutic targets in genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, and metabolic pathways. The projects are unique in that each represents a collaboration of federal, academic, and industry investigators. The data portal allows unlimited, embargo-free sharing of data with the global research community; all data must be posted within 3 months of acquisition by the teams.
The first wave of data from these studies is now available to registered users.
The gateway is part of the AMP-AD Target Discovery and Preclinical Validation Project . Led by the National Institute on Aging, the project’s goal is to shorten the time between drug target discovery and new drug development. Each of the four studies is leveraging data from more than 2,000 brain samples included in several existing datasets.
Freely sharing such information will increase the transparency, reproducibility, and translatability of basic research discoveries, program director Suzana Petanceska, Ph.D., said in a press statement.
“The era of big data and open science can be a game-changer in our ability to choose therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s that may lead to effective therapies tailored to diverse patients,” Dr. Petanceska said. “Simply stated, we can work more effectively together than separately.”
The four research studies are:
• The discovery and preclinical validation of novel targets associated with AD-associated molecular processes.
• Description of AD pathologic processes using a biologic systems approach.
• Discovery of potential proteomic drug targets.
• Identifying potentially druggable targets in innate immune-signaling pathways.
The AMP-AD project is part of the larger National Institutes of Health–led Accelerating Medicines Partnership, which is bringing the same public-private research effort to bear on rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and diabetes.
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