The genetic analysis of multiple sclerosis

Summary

Multiple sclerosis is a common cause of neurological disability in young adults in the UK. Available evidence suggests that the disease is primarily autoimmune and over the past few year’s advances in genetic analysis has allowed us to begin to identify the genes and biology involved in the development of the disease, its course and response to treatment. Through international collaborations we have already identified over 100 genetic variants that are associated with susceptibility to the disease which collectively explain approximately 20% of the heritability. 

We also wish to correlate the genetic information from the Cambridge BioResource volunteers with clinical and para-clinical data relating to these patients.  

Participation: For this provided data from 371 Cambridge BioResource volunteers who had a confirmed diagnosis of MS.

Organisation: This study is organised by Professor Stephen Sawcer at the Cambridge Neuroscience department at the University of Cambridge.