News

Two Cleveland Clinic researchers are recipients of the first grants awarded by the National Institute of Health’s BRAIN Initiative in neuroethics, for studies looking ethical issues in brain surgeries intended to treat diseases, with specific attention on Parkinson’s. “We are thankful the BRAIN Initiative sees the importance of exploring ethical considerations…

Horizon Discovery, in a collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), has developed two new genetic rat models that may help scientists better understand alpha-synuclein‘s role in brain function and in the development of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Alpha-synuclein is the main molecular component of…

MIT researchers have developed REPAIR, a new version of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system that can edit RNA instead of DNA — so as not to alter a person’s genome — and may one day be used to treat Parkinson’s and a variety of other diseases. The findings are…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Insightec to start a pivotal study of its Exablate Neuro technology. The ultrasound therapy aims to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease patients with involuntary muscle movements and motor fluctuations who don’t respond to medication. The principal investigator is Dr. Howard Eisenberg,…

Anavex 2-73, an investigational therapy being evaluated in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, was found to restore the function of damaged nerve cells in mouse models of Parkinson’s disease. Based on the favorable safety profile seen in the clinic, the findings support the hypothesis that Anavex 2-73 might be a promising approach for…

The Parkinson’s Foundation recently announced a merger with the Melvin Yahr International Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, a New York-based organization named after Melvin D. Yahr, MD, a pioneer in Parkinson’s disease (PD) research whose work led to the adoption of levodopa as an innovative treatment. The merger will be…

After exposure to the herbicide paraquat, genes that may lead to Parkinson’s disease were identified using an innovative gene-editing technique. The study, “A CRISPR screen identifies a pathway required for paraquat-induced cell death,” was published in Nature Chemical Biology. Exposure to the herbicide paraquat…

Voyager Therapeutics’ new clinical data on VY-AADC01 as a maintenance therapy for advanced Parkinson’s disease shows   improvement in patients’ motor function after just one dose, and with meaningfully lower doses of oral levodopa. The company presented ongoing Phase 1b trial (NCT01973543) results at the Oct. 17-20 Congress of the European Society…

Two new tests that diagnose smell dysfunction are an effective method to detect Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases across different patient populations, a study shows. The study, “SMELL-S and SMELL-R: Olfactory tests not influenced by odor-specific insensitivity or prior olfactory experience,” was published in the journal…

Researchers at Stanford University are hoping that brain-machine interfaces, or neural prosthetics, could become a clinical reality to help cure Parkinson’s disease. The scientific interest in connecting the brain with machines and devices isn’t new. It began in the 1970s with Jacques Vidal’s Brain Computer Interface project. The project…