The Michael J. Fox Foundation Awards $3.5 Million to Advance LRRK2 Therapeutic Development Efforts

NEW YORK, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research today announced $3.5 million in total funding to nine research studies aiming to advance understanding of the LRRK2 gene, a promising therapeutic target for Parkinson's disease. Using a multipronged approach that includes collaboration between the research teams, the funded projects will help accelerate LRRK2 therapeutic development efforts.

The studies announced today are part of this broader effort. The researchers will help elucidate the role of LRRK2 in PD, which is only partially understood, by investigating the functions of LRRK2 in the cell; identifying other cellular proteins linked to LRRK2 (called 'substrates') as potential new sources of therapeutic targets; and developing tools and technologies to drive further research on LRRK2. The nine research teams will also form a LRRK2 consortium, sharing results and collaborating with each other to tackle problems as they arise.

The three teams funded to investigate LRRK2 substrates are also using a variety of tissue sources, improving the ability of these researchers to cross-validate any findings. A multidisciplinary team led by Shu G. Chen, Ph.D., of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is working with cellular models of PD to identify LRRK2 substrates, whereas another team led by Darren J. Moore, Ph.D., of Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, is focusing his work in animal models. As part of his group's investigation into LRRK2 substrates, Patrick A. Lewis, Ph.D., of the University College London Institute of Neurology, is comparing tissues from people with PD who carry LRRK2 mutations to tissues from people who do not have these mutations.

In addition to the $3.5 million for the nine research studies announced today, MJFF has also recently awarded $500,000 under a separate LRRK2 project. This award will help to coordinate previously announced efforts to study PD patients with the LRRK2 mutation.

Michael J. Fox Foundation