Guest blogger Peter Burne is a member of the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) Patient Council. Peter recently attended the annual PPMI meeting in New York City. Below Peter shares his impressions from the meeting and why he decided to get involved.

Early in May I had the opportunity to attend the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) annual meeting held in New York City. PPMI is a five-year international study sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) to identify biomarkers that reveal the progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD). A biomarker is a substance, process or characteristic in the body that is associated with the risk, presence or progression of a disease.  A good example of a biomarker is high blood pressure for potential cardiovascular disease.

There is currently no known biomarker for PD. Finding one would provide scientists with a critical tool to predict, objectively diagnose and monitor the disease. It would also allow researchers to determine which medications work and which do not, important information for pharmaceutical companies that might invest in developing drugs to treat Parkinson’s.    Continue reading “All These People, Working for Us” »

#MJFFchat Now evaluating individuals who may be at risk for #Parkinsons due to genetic factors in #ClinicalTrials for biomaker

— michaeljfox.org (@MichaelJFoxOrg) May 9, 2012

Yesterday The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research hosted the second call in our ongoing Seminar Call Series on Hot Topics in PD Research, updating the Parkinson’s community on various approaches underway to develop Parkinson’s disease-modifying therapies and discussing how biomarkers affect our ability to test these therapies.

Hosted by Michael J. Fox Foundation CEO Todd Sherer, PhD, and joined by President and Senior Scientist at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders, Ken Marek, MD, the discussion highlighted our current understanding of neurodegeneration, discussed approaches and clinical research underway in the U.S. and abroad, and addressed the challenges of testing potential therapies. Continue reading “Seminar Call Series Recap: Parkinson’s Disease-modifying Therapies and Biomarkers” »

How your brain processes dopamine may define whether you’re more prone to bust your can or sit back and slack.  This, according to a new study from Harvard Medical School and Vanderbilt University published in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

WebMD reports that study participants who had higher levels of dopamine in two areas of the brain known to play a role in how we process reward and motivation were busy bees. Those who were less willing to work hard had higher levels of dopamine in a different brain area which is involved in emotion and perception of risk.

Dopamine is a buzz word for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), whose brains produce lower levels of the neurotransmitter.  While this lack of dopamine itself is known to lead to PD motor symptoms such as rigidity and slowness of movement, it may also create biochemical reactions throughout the brain that can lead to non-motor symptoms such as apathy and depression. Continue reading “Dopamine: Drill Sergeant or Lazybones?” »

This Parkinson’s Awareness Month was a busy one—at The Michael J. Fox Foundation and throughout the Parkinson’s community. April was filled with promising research news, innovative partnerships, surprise appearances, great media hits, key milestones, new friends and more.

The results: More people are aware of the urgent need to speed better treatments—and a cure—to patients. And they’re ready to take action.

A few of April’s highlights: Continue reading “Recapping Parkinson’s Awareness Month” »

Researchers funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) have identified the best clinical scale for measuring patient response to therapies to treat dyskinesia, the debilitating, uncontrollable movements that are often a side effect of Parkinson’s disease (PD) drugs.

The study, led by co-coordinating principal investigators Chris Goetz, MD, and Glenn Stebbins, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center, demonstrated that the Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDysRS) most sensitively tracks treatment effect.

Establishing UDysRS as a validated tool for use in dyskinesia clinical trials could have important implications moving forward. In the past, clinicians used several different scales measuring dyskinesia, without any real evidence that they accurately measured if drugs were working. Now, researchers should be able to better design accurate clinical trials to verify that a dyskinesia drug is — or isn’t — working.

It’s an important step toward bringing dyskinesia-targeted drugs closer to pharmacy shelves.

MJFF spoke with Stebbins and Scientific Advisory Board member David Weiner, MD, to gauge what the study results could mean for the development of new dyskinesia therapies, a major unmet need for those living with Parkinson’s today.  Read the entire interview here.  Excerpts are below. Continue reading “Weighing Different Scales: Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale Comes out on Top, Could Speed Development of New Dyskinesia Treatments” »

Todd Sherer, Michael J. Fox and Anne Wojcicki at 23andMe (photo credit Mark Tuschman)

To help scientists stay on target, and to help patients in the long run, The Michael J. Fox Foundation has earned a reputation for staying connected to research partners. Yesterday, a few members of the Foundation, including Michael J. Fox, stopped by to visit one: personal genetics company 23andMe, based in Mountain View, California.

Back in March 2009, MJFF, together with 23andMe, announced a call for 10,000 people with Parkinson’s disease to join an ambitious new research community. The goal of the community is to empower individuals with PD to proactively impact research in real time. By contributing their DNA, these volunteers are helping researchers better understand the role of genetics in PD—which could lead to improved treatments for all patients. As we reported in a post yesterday, since then 7,500 people with Parkinson’s have stepped up and 10 new genetic variants related to PD have been found. All it took for patients was a little spit, some time to complete online surveys about their experience with PD, and the courage to learn more about their own genetic make-up—all in the quest for a cure.

During their visit, Fox, along with MJFF’s CEO Todd Sherer, PhD, and Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman Debi Brooks, sat down with 23andMe’s Co-Founder Anne Wojcicki and Research Development Manager Emily Drabant, PhD. Together they delved into the PD Research Community’s latest results, brainstorming on how the two organizations could collaborate to leverage these new findings.

23andMe’s staff also had a chance to chat with Fox and get to know him personally, when he joined them for an informal Q&A session. A few of the highlights are below. Continue reading “Forging Connections: the Foundation Visits Research Partner 23andMe” »

In spring 2009, personal genetics company 23andMe announced that it would recruit 10,000 people with Parkinson’s to contribute DNA for research to illuminate the role of genetics in PD. Three years later, 7,500 people with Parkinson’s across 49 U.S. states and 26 countries have joined what has become the largest Parkinson’s community for genetic research worldwide.  23andMe researchers are making progress toward building a greater picture of the underlying causes of the disease, genetic and otherwise.

“23andMe’s unique initiative leveraging DNA technology, the Internet, and patient participation is already enhancing understanding of Parkinson’s disease,” says Todd Sherer, PhD, CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF). “Ongoing results could open new approaches to developing drugs.”

There are many reasons for conducting genetic studies tied to PD.  One is to better predict an individual’s risk for developing the disease in the long-term.   Another reason is that, by studying genetic mutations, researchers hope to better understand the molecular processes taking place during the course of PD, in both genetic and sporadic cases of the disease. This could lead to improved drugs to counteract these processes.

MJFF has been a publicity partner to the PD Research Community, helping spread the word to people with Parkinson’s about the opportunity to speed research progress by mailing in a saliva sample to 23andMe to collect the DNA it needs to analyze people’s genetics.

Today, Sherer, Michael J. Fox, and Foundation Co-Founder Debi Brooks are visiting 23andMe’s Mountain View, California offices to see the operation first hand.

“The Foundation has played a major role in research progress we’ve made to this point,” says Emily Drabant, PhD, Research Development Manager at 23andMe. “Today’s visit gives us the chance to share updates with Todd, Michael, and Debi personally — and think through opportunities to continue our fruitful collaboration.”

Read on to learn more about some of 23andMe’s advances in research.

Continue reading “Navigating the ‘Many Roads to Rome’: MJFF Partner 23andMe Drives Genetic Research Toward Drugs to Treat Parkinson’s Disease” »

Today, eWeek profiled The Michael J. Fox Foundation’s new web based tool, Fox Trial Finder, and discussed the motivation behind creating an easy, user friendly platform for matching interested volunteers with clinical trials. In an interview, Chief Digital Officer Laxmi Wordham spoke to the usability of the tool, “Users can search the matching system without creating a profile by answering three questions: whether you have Parkinson’s, your location and stage of diagnosis. A key to the three-question matching system is its simplicity.” Read more on Fox Trial Finder from Wordham, CEO Todd Sherer and Michael J.Fox in the full article.

Today, The Wall Street Journal’s Informed Patient column profiled the emerging platforms to address a gap in clinical trials and volunteers. Key among those platforms is the Foundation’s innovative new tool, Fox Trial Finder, a web-based solution matching interested volunteers with clinical trials.

Titled “Services Match Patients with Clinical Trials,” the article profiles the Fox Trial Finder user success story of Claudia Garrido-Revilla and highlights revealing new survey results from the foundation.   Continue reading “Official Launch of Fox Trial Finder Featured in The Wall Street Journal Today” »

Americans with advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) who struggle with the levodopa-induced motor complications of wearing off and dyskinesia may soon have another treatment option: A levodopa-carbidopa gel delivered directly into the small intestine is moving closer to market, and test results suggest it may offer the same benefits as deep brain stimulation (DBS) — without the need for brain surgery.

Abbott Pharmaceuticals this week announced positive results from a phase 3 double-blind clinical study of its levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG), finding that LCIG significantly decreased “off” time (when the medication’s effects wear off) and increased “on” time without dyskinesia.  The Phase 3 results from this study are in line with interim results reported last year from an open-label study of LCIG.  (LCIG treatment is already available in Europe under the brand name Duodopa.) Continue reading “Novel Gel Formulation of Parkinson’s Drug May Limit “On/Off” Roller Coaster Ride” »