Bar Harbor-based Jackson Laboratory has received a $1.8 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to address a critical gap in Parkinson’s disease research.
The research will be conducted through a collaboration between the lab, the New York Stem Cell Foundation and with the Early Drug Discovery Unit at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University.
“Many genetic variants associated with Parkinson’s disease have been identified, but for most of them we still don’t understand their functional roles or how they contribute to disease risk,” said Stefan Semrau, co-director of the JAX–NYSCF Collaborative.
“Our goal is to standardize and characterize human cell modeling systems that directly link genetic changes to what happens in the cell, and to do so in a way that researchers and industry partners can readily use to develop new approaches for studying Parkinson’s disease and evaluating potential therapies,” he added.
Parkinson’s disease is caused by dysfunction of the brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical which coordinates movement. The disease can cause tremor, slowness, stiffness, and walking and balance problems, among other symptoms. It is a lifelong and progressive disease, estimated to affect nearly one million people in the U.S. and more than six million worldwide.
The mission of the New York City-based Michael J. Fox Foundation, founded by the famous actor who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, is to advance research to find therapies and a cure for the disease.
Jackson Laboratory is an independent, global nonprofit biomedical research institution founded in 1929. It is staffed by nearly 3,000 employees across Maine, Connecticut, California, Florida, New York and Japan.
