Google Co-Founder Backs Vast Parkinson’s Study

Sergey Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google, says he plans to contribute money and his DNA to a large study intended to reveal the genetic underpinnings of Parkinson’s disease.

The study, to be announced Thursday, will be conducted by 23andMe, a company co-founded and co-managed by Mr. Brin’s wife, Anne Wojcicki. The company offers a personal genomics service, in which it scans the DNA submitted by its customers and provides information on their health risks, ancestry and other traits.

Now it hopes to use its service and its growing database of consumer DNA to conduct medical research. The company hopes to recruit 10,000 people with Parkinson’s disease for the study.

For more on 23andMe, see: Personal Genomics: the Ethics of Shared Uncertainty

For use of social networks in research, see:
Therapeutic Misconception, Personalized Genetics, & Breast Cancer Research
and
Want to find out what makes you “stand out from the crowd”? Consider signing up for a research study!