Exciting News for Future PD Research
- Stephanie Soto
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
The only way to improve treatment and one day find a cure is research. Unfortunately, research costs a lot of money, it requires researchers, other health care providers, and folks like you to participate. This makes conducting research challenging. But good news! There are some incredible groups out there committed to advancing PD research.
The American Parkinson's Disease Association (APDA) launched a new awards program for research.
The APDA created the Bridge Funding Awards to support researchers who have experienced a funding interruption. This helps make sure that their projects continue to go on without any disruption.
“When researchers face abrupt funding losses, their critical work, and sometimes their careers, can be derailed. We acted quickly to make sure that didn’t happen.” - Rebecca Gilbert, MD, PhD, APDA’s chief mission officer.
The APDA will be providing a total of $205,000 in support to three researchers, Dong Yang, PhD, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York; Helen Hwang, MD, PhD, from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis; and Franchino Porciuncula, from Boston University.
The Michael J. Fox Foundation provided a $5 million grant to Vincere Biosciences through their Therapeutics Pipeline Program. Vincere Biosciences are working to advance the development of USP30 small molecule inhibitors, hopefully slowing or stopping PD progression.
“It’s been exciting to see growing enthusiasm for USP30 since our AI platform prioritized this target in 2018. The new support from MJFF positions the company well for ongoing partnering discussions with larger organizations who may accelerate clinical development of this promising approach.” - Andy Lee, co-founder and chief business officer of Vincere
The Michael J Fox Foundation strikes again and awarded $2 million to Enigma Biomedical USA. This helps support the development and first preclinical testing of a new test involving a PET scan that will assess for the protein alpha-synuclein.
“We are encouraged by the collective progress in the field being made to advance the diagnostic and therapeutic tools urgently needed to speed Parkinson’s drug development. We look forward to continued efforts from the Enigma Biomedical team in developing an imaging tracer for alpha-synuclein pathology, which has the potential to further optimize Parkinson’s diagnosis, strengthen clinical research design, and help drive better treatments that patients and families are waiting for.” - Sohini Chowdhury, chief program officer at MJFF
Help for Parkinson's is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and every dollar we receive goes directly to programs and resources that assist people with Parkinson's in living well. Our progress in such a short time is thanks to generous donations from people like you and me. If you haven't donated yet, encourage you to consider doing so. With your help, support, and participation, the Capital District. Parkinson’s community has made significant progress this past year. With the support of the Parkinson’s Community and our friends, there is still so much more we can do to help those living with this progressive disease thrive and enjoy their best possible lives!
Sources