The largest genetics study so far of late-onset Alzheimer's disease has identified 11 new genome regions that alter the risk of the disease.

A team of some 200 scientists in the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project carried out meta-analyses of four separate genome-wide association studies, profiling 17,008 people with Alzheimer's and 37,154 people who did not have the disease. The researchers reproduced their findings by genotyping an independent group of 8,572 Alzheimer's cases and 11,312 controls.

Their results confirmed nine out of ten known Alzheimer's risk genes. Eleven newly identified regions may give more clues about the biology of the disease, for which there are still no effective treatments.

Nature Genet. http://doi.org/ppm (2013)