Funded in partnership with the Morris Animal Foundation and the Wine Celebration Fund-A-Need
In 2012, Morris Animal Foundation launched the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study primarily to explore the risk factors related to cancer in golden retrievers. The Study has been following 3,044 dogs throughout their lives, collecting wide-ranging data on each animal each year, including environmental exposures, behavior, medical diagnoses, medications, diet and more. Golden retrievers were selected for this study because they are diagnosed with cancer at a much higher rate than most other breeds of dogs, and some of the most common cancers in golden retrievers are closely related to common human cancers.
The data being collected by the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study is freely available for academic research via the Morris Animal Foundation Data Commons. The goal of the current project is to augment the Data Commons with high-resolution genotype data on each of the dogs and, eventually, complete DNA sequence data on all of the dogs diagnosed with cancer, along with a suitable number of other dogs as controls. As the genotyping and sequencing is completed, Morris Animal Foundation will perform preliminary data validation and analysis, and then incorporate the data into the Data Commons, where it will be available to everyone with an account. This will enable researchers from institutions around the world to participate with us in the effort better understand canine cancer as well as inform human cancer research.
Morris Animal Foundation Data Commons accounts can be requested by anyone involved in academic research by completing the registration form on the Data Commons website.
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