ASAP and GP2

The research record

This is the project's file for this landmark, as written and checked. Sources are listed at the end; anything not yet confirmed is marked "Not yet verified".

Who

Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) was seeded by the Milken Institute's philanthropy arm and the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, led by Nobel laureate Randy Schekman. The Michael J. Fox Foundation (landmark 77) is its implementation partner. GP2 is its first resource project.

What happened

A planning meeting was held in May 2018; ASAP was active from 2019 after two years of planning (I could not confirm the May 2018 meeting date from a primary source). In October 2019 it offered up to $9 million over three years to research teams forming the ASAP Collaborative Research Network, focused on genetics biology, neuro-immune interactions and brain circuitry. In December 2019 it launched GP2.

The GP2 overview paper (Movement Disorders, online 29 Jan 2021) set out five-year goals: dense genotyping of more than 150,000 participants; whole-genome or long-read sequencing of more than 10,000; more than 5,000 patients and families for the single-gene arm; and about 100,000 people of northern European ancestry plus at least 50,000 from underrepresented populations. Analyses run in a shared cloud platform (Terra) with open summary results and code.

On 15 September 2020 ASAP and MJFF announced more than $161 million in grants to 21 research teams over three years, the first awards from the Collaborative Research Network (MJFF). The MJFF 2020 Year in Review also reports that MJFF funded LARGE-PD's 2020 expansion (landmark 190); I could not confirm that beyond the report.

Why it moved us toward a cure

The risk-gene map is skewed to Europeans (landmark 19). More diverse, open data should reveal new causal genes and drug targets and identify carriers for trials such as those in landmark 7 and landmark 16. ASAP is also a major PPMI funder (landmark 24).

Outcome

Open. The programme is running. ASAP's own reports give its progress: GP2's stated goal is now genotyping over 250,000 volunteers; over 190,000 samples had been committed by 1 November 2024 (committed, not yet genotyped). Its 11th data release holds over 100,000 genotypes, about one-third from underrepresented populations, and 38,000 whole genomes. GP2 won the 2024 Cooper Open Science Prize. A GP2 preprint (March 2025, not peer reviewed) reports 134 European risk loci, 59 of them new, and 157 independent signals (landmark 19). ASAP's Collaborative Research Network has 35 teams across 14 countries; 18 received two-year supplemental funding in fall 2024. ASAP is funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, with the Michael J. Fox Foundation as implementation partner (ASAP Year in Review 2024; 2025). ASAP's 2025 review names no new causal gene found through GP2.

Sources

• ASAP Year in Review 2024 and 2025 (programme numbers only)
• MJFF: ASAP announces $161 million to 21 teams, Sept 2020
• MJFF 2020 Year in Review (LARGE-PD expansion only)
• MJFF: ASAP initiative
• Milken Institute: philanthropy-led charge
• Schekman letter, ASAP Roadmap
• GP2 Consortium, "GP2: The Global Parkinson's Genetics Program," Mov Disord 2021;36(4):842–851, DOI 10.1002/mds.28494 (PMC9290711)
• Correction: the GP2 overview is in Movement Disorders (not Nature Genetics).
• Not yet verified: ASAP's total funding beyond the 2020 round; MJFF's page does not name ASAP's funders (the Sergey Brin Family Foundation is named in ASAP's own reviews; the Milken Institute article says Milken Institute Philanthropy and the Brin Foundation seeded it); GP2's genotyped count (only committed samples are reported); the "200,000 to 250,000" goal change, which is removed because no source states it; the LARGE-PD expansion funding.