News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Medtronic’s BrainSense adaptive deep brain stimulation (DBS) system and electrode identifier to treat people with Parkinson’s disease. Among available DBS systems, BrainSense is the first to automatically adapt its stimulation for a more personalized treatment approach, the company noted. Specifically,…

Subsense has received $17 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of a nanoparticle-based brain-computer interface to help monitor and treat people with neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s disease. The funding will help the company develop nanoparticles for precise stimulation and monitoring of brain activity, along with hardware…

A global team of researchers has identified the molecular switch in a protein complex that regulates how cellular waste disposal mechanisms clean up and recycle unwanted materials — like the toxic alpha-synuclein protein clumps, or aggregates, that drive the death of nerve cells in Parkinson’s disease, according to a…

Damage to a part of the brain called the amygdala plays a key role in vision problems for people with Parkinson’s disease, a study suggested. Vision problems are relatively common as people get older. In typical aging, vision problems arise because of issues in the eyes and vision-processing pathways,…

AB-1005, AskBio’s investigational gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease, has been granted regenerative medicine advanced therapy (RMAT) designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). RMAT designation is intended to speed the development and review of therapies that have shown potential to treat serious or life-threatening conditions. Benefits…

Researchers in the U.K. have successfully generated small antibodies, or nanobodies, that can target toxic aggregates of misfolded proteins, including alpha-synuclein, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. The antibodies, which were generated using a new antibody-discovery platform, can help understand how protein clumps, or aggregates are formed, and identify specific…

Gene enhancers may play an important role in neuronal development and neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, a study found. Enhancers work to turn on the activity of their target genes. Experiments showed that mutations previously linked to Parkinson’s were found within these enhancer regions, and that the enhancers…

Two imaging markers can help pinpoint sites of brain inflammation in people with Parkinson’s disease, according to a study. The findings shed light on the role of brain inflammation in disease progression and can help pave the way for more precise diagnostics and targeted therapies. “We are excited about…

Swedish-based Smartcella has entered an agreement with a research team from the Karolinska Institute for the exclusive rights to advance a cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease into clinical development and commercialization. The Karolinska Institute team in Sweden, led by Johan Ericson, PhD, a professor of developmental biology, has…

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University have developed prototypes of wearable devices that use pressure sensors and vibrations to address freezing of gait, a hallmark symptom of Parkinson’s disease. One such device is a specialized shoe sole equipped with sensors. These sensors detect changes in pressure as the wearer takes…