Hi:
I probably missed the posting on this listserver of the following call for
help but I think that it is important enough to risk posting it twice.
Ron Reiner
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Italians with familial PD
This article submitted by Lawrence I. Golbe, MD on 11/23/96.
Author's Email: [log in to unmask]
I am a research neurologist specializing in PD at the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical
School, New Brunswick, NJ. On Nov. 15, my colleagues and I announced
that we found the general location of a gene causing PD in a large
Italian-American family in which 60 people have had PD over the past 4
generations. The laboratory analysis was able to use only 9 of the
affected individuals, as the others were deceased. This allowed us to
narrow the location of the gene to an area of chromosome 4 where there
are about 100 known genes and undoubtedly many unknown ones. To find
the exact location of the gene, we need to find more people who, as
(perhaps unwitting) members of the same extended family, may have the
same gene. The family we worked with originated in a town called
Contursi, which is southeast of Naples and due west of Salerno, in
Salerno province of the Campagna region. WE INVITE ANYONE OF ITALIAN
ANCESTRY WHOSE FAMILY INCLUDES AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE WITH PD TO CONTACT
US. You may be able to help us find a gene that causes PD not just in
your family, but possibly in many others, too. Understanding how this
gene works may eventually lead to a powerful new way to treat PD. You
may e-mail me at [log in to unmask], call (908)235-7729, fax
(908)235-7041 or write to me at Department of Neurology, UMDNJ-Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08903.
