Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research Commits up to $2 million to Visualize Alpha-Synuclein Protein in the Brain

Tue Jun 3, 2:53 PM ET
To: NATIONAL EDITORS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/2008060...n_in_the_brain

Funding to be issued under second round of Critical Challenges in Parkinsons Disease initiative

NEW YORK, June 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research is committing up to $2 million to develop and test non-invasive imaging technologies that would allow scientists to visualize pathological clumping of the PD-implicated protein alpha-synuclein in the living brain. Such techniques hold potential to serve as critically needed biomarkers to improve diagnosis and speed the development of treatments with potential to slow or stop the disease from progressing.

The funding is available to academic and industry researchers under the Foundations Critical Challenges in Parkinsons Disease program, a key tactic in MJFFs ongoing quest to do whatever it takes to speed development of transformative treatments and a cure for Parkinsons disease. Critical Challenges is emblematic of the Foundations urgent work to identify and prioritize research questions whose answers hold the greatest potential to move the dial on the development of better treatments and a cure for PD.

Alpha-synuclein is a major constituent of Lewy bodies, protein clumps that are the pathological hallmark of PD. The proteins function in the normal brain and the specific role it may play in PD remain unclear. It is believed that alpha-synuclein pathology (including clumping) may predate the onset of motor dysfunction in people with PD.

READ article...