BioMed Central has published a series of 17 research
articles based on genetic data from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), as a
supplement to BMC Medical Genetics. The collected research, FHS 100K, is
the result of cooperation among several research institutions including Boston University School of Medicine and Public
Health; the National Heart, Lung and
Blood Institute (NHLBI); the National
Library of Medicine; and the National
Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).  

FHS 100K will be given unprecedented availability via BioMed Central’s open access
journal and through NCBI’s Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP). The
researchers’ decision to publish in BioMed Central’s open access journal
underlines their collective belief that genetic observations from FHS should be
made publicly available and remain an unpatented data resource designed to
accelerate scientific discovery.

The aim of the Framingham Heart Study is to identify the
common factors or characteristics that contribute to cardiovascular disease
(CVD) by following its development over a long period of time in a large group
of participants who had not yet developed overt symptoms of CVD or suffered a
heart attack or stroke. The data from all of the studies will be made available
through NHLBI’s dbGaP, a database designed to archive and distribute data from
genome wide association studies. Researchers around the world will be able to
use the results in the database to conduct further research to create new drugs
and treatments to benefit patients.

For more information please see today’s press release.