Celera Diagnostics, a joint venture between the Celera Genomics Group and Applied Biosystems Group of Applera Corporation, has extended its collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc. aimed at developing new treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Under this collaboration, Celera Diagnostics and Merck will combine their research efforts in the genetics of this devastating brain disease to genetically validate and prioritize a series of genes targeted for drug development. The primary goal of the collaboration is to accelerate the discovery of new drugs to address the unmet clinical need for the treatment of Alzheimer's. This collaboration follows the recent completion of the work between the two companies, which started in July 2004 pertaining to the identification of novel targets for drug discovery and diagnostic markers related to this disease.

Under the terms of this agreement, Celera Diagnostics will genotype selected gene-based mutations, or SNPs, in four independent case-control sample collections. Genotyping will include proprietary SNPs from the Applera-funded Applera Genome Initiative. The case-control sets will consist of DNA samples from patients with confirmed Alzheimer's, and age-, and gender-matched controls. The total number of individuals included in this study is estimated to be approximately 2,800, making it one of the largest discovery studies of its kind in understanding the disease. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Celera Diagnostics' disease association studies compare genotype and/or gene expression profiles in multiple large sample collections to identify genetic markers linked with disease risk, progression and response to therapy. Celera Diagnostics is currently conducting large-scale disease association studies for multiple complex conditions, including cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, auto-immune diseases, Alzheimer's disease, liver disease and diabetes.