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I had an interesting hypothesis about the link between neuron death and inflammation and a way to test it using novel tools; but doing these studies would be considered high-risk by most traditional review criteria. The Michael J. Fox Foundation provided the seed money for me to get closer to an outcome that could potentially be very beneficial to people living with the disease, faster than would have been possible otherwise. Studying inflammation in rodent models of PD, my team found a new way to rescue half the dopamine neurons that would otherwise die in the substantia nigra.
Before beginning this project, I had a background in mechanisms of neuronal signaling and survival, but not in Parkinson’s disease. The MJFF funding program on inflammation in PD was a great fit for our new research focus. If not for that program, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be working in Parkinson’s today. The Foundation strives to attract new researchers to the field, and to support their innovative approaches to find and fight the causes of PD — I’m living proof that it’s working!
Thanks to the projects funded by MJFF, I’ve been able to obtain additional funding to take this work to the next level. We want to bring the Foundation new hypotheses and ideas on how best to develop effective therapies targeting the neurotoxic inflammatory processes that contribute to PD. The future looks very bright.
