NeuroBooster Array: A Genome-Wide Genotyping Platform to Study Neurological Disorders Across Diverse Populations.

BACKGROUND

Commercial genome-wide genotyping arrays have historically neglected coverage of genetic variation across populations.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to create a multi-ancestry genome-wide array that would include a wide range of neuro-specific genetic content to facilitate genetic research in neurological disorders across multiple ancestral groups, fostering diversity and inclusivity in research studies.

METHODS

We developed the Illumina NeuroBooster Array (NBA), a custom high-throughput and cost-effective platform on a backbone of 1,914,934 variants from the Infinium Global Diversity Array and added custom content comprising 95,273 variants associated with more than 70 neurological conditions or traits, and we further tested its performance on more than 2000 patient samples. This novel platform includes approximately 10,000 tagging variants to facilitate imputation and analyses of neurodegenerative disease-related genome-wide association study loci across diverse populations.

RESULTS

In this article, we describe NBA's potential as an efficient means for researchers to assess known and novel disease genetic associations in a multi-ancestry framework. The NBA can identify rare genetic variants and accurately impute more than 15 million common variants across populations. Apart from enabling sample prioritization for further whole-genome sequencing studies, we envisage that NBA will play a pivotal role in recruitment for interventional studies in the precision medicine space.

CONCLUSIONS

From a broader perspective, the NBA serves as a promising means to foster collaborative research endeavors in the field of neurological disorders worldwide. Ultimately, this carefully designed tool is poised to make a substantial contribution to uncovering the genetic etiology underlying these debilitating conditions. © 2024 The Author(s). Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.