New Research Initiatives - Common Disease Causes

Press Release - NIEHS News

WASHINGTON - Wed. Feb. 8, 2006 - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the creation of two new, closely related initiatives to speed up research on the causes of common diseases such as asthma, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease.

One initiative boosts funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a multi-institute effort to identify the genetic and environmental underpinnings of common illnesses. The other initiative launches a public-private partnership between NIH, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) and major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, especially Pfizer Global Research & Development of New London, Conn.; and Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., to accelerate genome association studies to find the genetic roots of widespread sicknesses.

The genetic analysis component of the two initiatives is highly complementary.

To read the entire release, please see:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/news/gei.htm

To read the Factsheet "New Technology For Detecting Biological Responses to Environmental Factors", please see:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/factsheets/pdf/gei.pdf