“Novel Approaches” Program Awards Six Parkinson’s Research Teams

Six research teams working to develop potentially disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson’s disease received $1.5 million this week from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) through a program funded by Elan.

The awards came from the “Novel Approaches to Drug Discovery for Parkinson’s Disease” program, which seeks to advance the development of therapeutic targets that have promising initial data, while engaging Elan as a potential follow-on funder for those with the greatest potential to bring new, transformative treatments to people living with Parkinson’s disease.

“We are continually exploring new ideas, technologies and platforms to develop successful therapies for Parkinson’s disease,” said Dale Schenk, PhD, Elan’s chief scientific officer. “The Novel Approaches program is an important part of the collaborative effort needed to help patients.”

Elan President Carlos Paya, MD, PhD, said the company is “very proud of our relationship with The Michael J. Fox Foundation. As Elan defines the future of degenerative neurological therapies, we believe our R&D collaborations will play a key role.”

The Novel Approaches program is an important component of MJFF’s overall strategy of providing critical resources to underfunded areas of the drug development pipeline.

Awardees under Novel Approaches include both academic and industry scientists. Two teams will target the protein alpha-synuclein, whose clumping is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease pathology. The other teams are developing technologies to prevent the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, the main type of cell affected in Parkinson’s disease, by focusing on the reduction of oxidative stress and the inhibition of JNK, a protein associated with cell death.

Projects selected for funding are listed below. The selection of awardees was made exclusively by the foundation via its peer-review process.

Read the full press release, including the list of awarded projects, at http://www.michaeljfox.org/newsEvents_mjffInTheNews_pressReleases_article.cfm?ID=384