Patricia Inácio, PhD,  science writer—

3D “mini-brains,” or brain organoids, derived from people with Parkinson’s disease and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) are now at the International Space Station (ISS) as part of ongoing research in the unique effects of space on the human brain. How brain cells interact in microgravity, a condition…

Coya Therapeutics is expanding the pipeline for its COYA 302 immunotherapy, adding two neurodegenerative disorders — frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Parkinson’s disease — as targets for the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatment candidate. Brain inflammation is known to drive Parkinson’s — and is a mechanism shared…

Scientists have developed a molecule that promotes the clearance of toxic clumps of the alpha-synuclein protein — a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease — by targeting its template rather that the protein itself. “We have found that targeting the RNA needed to build the toxic protein may be an optimal…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Zydus Lifesciences a green light to conduct a Phase 2 trial of ZYIL1, an oral inhibitor of NLRP3 — a protein that’s linked to brain inflammation, or neuroinflammation — in people with Parkinson’s disease. The trial will evaluate the safety…

Neurocrine Biosciences is opening two Phase 1 clinical trials in healthy adults to test two oral candidate muscarinic receptor agonists intended to treat Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions. Both investigational therapies — called NBI-1117569 and NBI-1117567 — were developed by Sosei Heptares, which licensed…

Members of the Support Group for Black Patients with Parkinson’s Disease took part in the Parkinson Council’s Walk to Stamp Out Parkinson’s event in November and raised more than $3,400, helping the Council to come within 70% of its $400,000 fundraising goal. The support group, which was launched in…

Two leading nonprofit institutes have launched the GA4GH & INCF Neuroscience Community to better connect researchers around the world studying Parkinson’s disease and other brain disorders, and to improve data sharing globally. The goal of this new network, its creators say, is to tackle the complexity underlying disorders like…

The Institute for Glial Sciences, a center dedicated to the role of glial cells in Parkinson’s disease and others affecting the nervous system with a goal of better treatments, is opening at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. It will be led by Paul Tesar, PhD, a professor in…

An ongoing and global Phase 3 clinical trial program for oral tavapadon, a selective dopamine receptor agonist aiming to improve motor function in people with Parkinson’s disease, expects to release study findings next year. Three separate, 27-week trials are evaluating tavapadon’s efficacy, safety, and tolerability against…

Enrollment is now complete for a Phase 2 trial that’s assessing the safety and efficacy of oral vodobatinib (K0706), an experimental Abl inhibitor, in people with early Parkinson’s disease across 84 clinical sites in the U.S., Europe, and India. The placebo-controlled trial (NCT03655236), dubbed PROSEEK and sponsored by Sun…