The collaborations and connections I’ve made through The Michael J. Fox Foundation would normally take a lifetime to establish. I have around 20 active collaborations going at the moment, and every single one stems from an MJFF introduction.

 

I used to be a basic researcher with a side interest in how my basic physiology research might connect to a disease. Now, because of the work I’ve done with the Foundation and the connections I’ve made, I’m always thinking translationally — what other researchers do I know who would be interested in this? What would the therapeutic strategy developed in a rodent model by others do in our primate model of PD? The Foundation has turned me into a translational researcher.

 

From the very beginning, MJFF has gone about its work so differently from other research organizations. The people who started the Foundation — some were scientists, some were not — didn’t have preconceived ideas about exactly who was going to find the cure for PD. They wanted to bring researchers together from all different areas of specialization to collaborate. And they established new science management practices (new to European researchers, at least).

 

At MJFF meetings, we spend hours and days talking to people we would probably never even meet otherwise. And everyone comes from different backgrounds, so people share ideas willingly, without the fear of having their ideas stolen. We feel open-minded at those meetings; the only thing we’re thinking about is what makes sense to move the project forward, to move PD science forward.