8 Fox Focus | Research
The Image Worth a Decade of Scientific Resolve
By Kat Mehlhorn
Jamie Eberling , PhD , The Michael J . Fox Foundation ’ s senior vice president of research resources , watched intently as researchers out of Lund University and Skåne University Hospital in Sweden shared the first images of alpha-synuclein in the living brain — a sight that brought tears to her eyes . Using a PET ( positron emission tomography ) tracer developed by Swiss biotechnology company AC Immune , the images represented a glimmer of hope after more than a decade of trial and error .
Since it was discovered in the 1990s that the protein alpha-synuclein aggregates in the brains of people with Parkinson ’ s disease , MJFF and its partners have been on a quest to visualize this activity in the living brain . At the same time , drugmakers have aggressively pursued alpha-synuclein as a key target for therapies designed to treat PD . ( Currently , there are 15 trials of potential Parkinson ’ s therapies targeting alpha-synuclein .)
“ Early on , we heard from companies that this would be a game-changer for drug development ,” says Eberling , who has pioneered the Foundation ’ s imaging program since she joined in 2009 .
But if we can ’ t visualize alpha-synuclein in the brain , how can we know if these new therapies are effective ?
While these clumps are visible through postmortem tissue analysis , seeing alpha-synuclein in the living brain would enable researchers