Crnic Institute Receives $2.7 Million Grant for an International Study of Down Syndrome
Summary
Aurora, Colo., Nov. 26, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A landmark $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) INCLUDE Project will support the Human Trisome Project - Latin America Network, a network of research and medical care sites across the United States and in Latin America to investigate the clinical characteristics and to identify distinguishing health issues or treatments for Latinos with Down syndrome. With this generous grant we will complete a comprehensive annotation of demographic information, social determinants of health, co-occurring conditions, and lifestyle factors.In the first two years of the study, multiple sites across the U.S. and Latin America will develop a shared protocol, including clinical characterization and collection of biospecimens, with the recruitment slated to begin in 2025. The Latin American network builds on the Human Trisome Project, a large cohort study of people with Down syndrome led by the Crnic Institute. By comparing Latinos in the U.S. to those in various Latin American countries, we hope to identify risk and resiliency factors that could change the presentation of Down syndrome.We are so grateful to the brilliant scientists at the Crnic Institute, for acting globally and ensuring diversity in our research efforts, says Michelle Sie Whitten, President & CEO of Global Down Syndrome Foundation, a partner and an Affiliate organization of the Crnic Institute. We are proud that GLOBALs advocacy work with Congress and with the NIH has led to the establishment of the trans-NIH Down syndrome funding program, the INCLUDE Project, that underwrites this and numerous other groundbreaking studies and clinical trials.This study will be supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01HD116469.