MJFF awards $2M for PD research

The USA-based Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has announced around $2.0 million in total funding for seven research studies aiming to advance the ability of the Parkinson's research field, and drug makers, to therapeutically target two genes - LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein - that play a major, but still only partially understood, role in PD.

"Critical Challenges is uniquely designed to increase researcher focus on specific research challenges standing in the way of therapeutic progress," said Katie Hood, chief executive of the MJFF. "In this round, our research staff canvassed the world's leading PD experts to identify the precise issues holding up LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein drug development. We then structured our funding to incentivize scientists to look for the exact answers that will break down those roadblocks and allow work to move forward with greater impact. As in everything we do, our ultimate goal is to advance scientific solutions that can tangibly improve patients' quality of life," she said.

LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein were selected for study under the first funding round of MJFF's Critical Challenges in PD program following a survey of the field by the Foundation's research staff and advisors. Alpha-synuclein was the first gene associated with PD, and pathological clumping of the protein product of the alpha-synuclein gene within cells of the brain represents a nearly universal thread linking multiple forms of Parkinson's, says the MJFF. The association of the LRRK2 gene to PD was discovered more recently but appears to contribute to a substantial number of Parkinson's cases - as high as 40% in some ethnic groups.