Storing DNA to unlock the cause of hereditary diseases
As veterinarians, we regularly deal with various disorders in dogs and cats. Examining patients and determining what is wrong with them is what we do after all. Sometimes, after seeing a similar disease across multiple animals from e.g. the same family or breed, we suspect that the disease is hereditary. It would have been great if DNA of all the patients with this disease was already stored in a DNA databank.
Currently, DNA storage is not standard practice due to additional costs. This is something we would like to change, since we lose a lot of information when we don’t have access to patients that suffer from hereditary diseases.
What we want to do
We want to create a financial buffer to make sure we are able to analyze DNA of dogs and cats with possible hereditary disorders. This buffer makes it enables us to store DNA samples of diseases in animals, even when there is no current research project in process.
The end result
We will build a large DNA database that we can either use ourselves or share with fellow researchers that will ultimately benefit the health of all pets.
Wie ik ben
Mijn naam is Paul Mandigers en al vanaf mijn studie houd ik me bezig met rasgebonden ziektes en spreek daar ook regelmatig over voor dierenartsen en rasverenigingen.
Wat ik doe
Momenteel heb ik iets van tien reeds gefinancierde projecten waarbij we onder meer een aantal erfelijke ziektes onderzoeken. En daar ga ik voor: een gezondere hond en kat!
Ons (jaarlijks) streefbedrag: €3000
Iedere DNA isolatie kost 22,50 euro. Met €3000 per jaar kunnen we jaarlijks de DNA van honderden mogelijke patiënten opslaan.
