Mathematician Had Stake in Identifying Genes Linked to ALS

September 25, 2009

Mathematicians have linked three genes to the most common type of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Shuanglin Zhang (Michigan Technological University, in Houghton) led the team that isolated the genes from the thousands scattered throughout human DNA.

A cure can't come soon enough. Zhang, who showed symptoms of ALS four years ago, now breathes with aid of a respirator and works at home with his wife, Qiuying Sha. "I felt very urgent to find the genes for ALS," said Zhang, who analyzed DNA samples, clinical data, and other genetic information of 547 individuals: 276 with sporadic ALS and 271 without it.

"This is very nice work," observed Xiaofeng Zhu (Case Western Reserve University). "It's very challenging to map genes for complex diseases, and while many statistical methods have been developed, most don't work well in practice."

Zhang's group, he added, "has developed a method to detect genes and gene-gene interaction in complex diseases and provided evidence that it works."

The paper detailing the findings, titled "Genome-wide Association Reveals Three SNPs Associated with Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis through a Two-locus Analysis," appeared in the open access journal BMC Medical Genetics. The other researchers were Jennifer Schymick and Bryan Traynor (both from the National Institutes of Health) and Zhaogong Zhang and Qiuying Sha (both from Michigan Tech).

Source: Michigan Technological University, Sept. 14, 2009.