National Parkinson's Foundation gifts nearly $1M to top studies

The National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) is providing almost $1 million in funding for four major studies in Parkinson's disease, the Foundation announced May 22.

The grants are scheduled to be doled out over two years of investigating Parkinson's pathology and possible treatments by four different researchers and their respective institutions.

"NPF is propelling the most potentially transformative research forward," said Joyce Oberdorf, NPF president and CEO. "This research will help us understand how a cause leads to the disease, how the disease progresses, and the best ways to treat it."

A grant will be devoted to a study about a-synuclein pathology in dopamine neurons using stem cell lines led by Edward A. Fon, MD, from the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Funding will also bankroll a second a-synuclein small animal study led by Benoit Giasson, PhD, from the UF Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, UF Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration at the University of Florida, Gainesville. A third grant will fund a tau PET imaging study, led by Stephen Gomperts, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, as it looks into the connection between cognitive impairment and hyperphosphorylated tau in the brain. The fourth study aims to iron out an exercise protocol as treatment for the neurodegenerative disease and is led by Giselle M. Petzinger, MD, from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

"These four projects are answering some key questions about Parkinson's," said Peter Schmidt, PhD, Vice President, Research and Professional Programs at NPF. "Drs. Fon and Giasson will each help us understand some important questions about how Parkinson's disease spreads within the brain, a topic that was the number one basic science challenge identified by the NIH. Dr. Gompers will attempt to develop a biomarker for cognitive change in Parkinson's, which we know varies from patient to patient and so measurement is important. Dr. Petzinger's study represents the culmination of a decade or more of work to understand the different effects of various exercise strategies."

Each grant was peer-reviewed and settled upon by the clinical and scientific advisory board of the NPF.