Fall / Winter 2022 | Research 9
The first images of alpha-synuclein in the living brain . The orange and yellow coloration on the bottom two scans reveal alpha-synuclein accumulation in the cerebellum region of the brain ; the top two scans are of the brains of control subjects without disease .
PHOTO COURTESY OF RUBEN SMITH , SKÅNE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Since it was discovered that the protein alphasynuclein 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 . to confirm diagnosis , identify volunteers for clinical trials and assess drug efficacy faster . Medical imaging , such as a PET scan , is a noninvasive tool to measure biochemical changes happening in real time . Imagine comparing a PET scan taken pre-treatment with another taken post-treatment to determine the impact of a new therapy . “ 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 . Similar strategies in Alzheimer ’ s have had a pivotal effect on accelerating drug development for that disease . “ This is the breakthrough in Parkinson ’ s that will make things go quicker .”
Yet few study teams were working on synuclein PET tracers at the time , in part because this was seen as one of the most daunting challenges in Parkinson ’ s research . Eberling ’ s team at MJFF hosted a workshop in 2010 to figure out how best to support the field to take steps into this arena . Uniting key stakeholders , the Consortium to Develop an Alpha-Synuclein Imaging Agent was born and with it , a research roadmap and essential tools that are used today by many groups . “ The Foundation set out to help lay the groundwork for how things should be done , as well as providing significant resources to jumpstart the search . Without that , it would have almost certainly taken much longer to get here ,” says Eberling .
MJFF also found creative ways to leverage philanthropic capital to attract more interest in this vital field . In 2016 , MJFF announced a $ 2-million Alpha-synuclein Imaging Prize to be awarded to the first team to achieve successful selective imaging of alpha-synuclein in the living brain . And in 2020 , The Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition — a $ 10-million commitment launched in 2019 to spur development of an imaging tracer — awarded three teams significant funding to accelerate work in this area . One of those teams was AC Immune , which MJFF has granted more than $ 5 million since 2015 . The