2 Fox Focus | The New Era
Message from the CEO :
A New Era for Parkinson ’ s : What Now ? What ’ s Next ?
As this issue of The Fox Focus on Parkinson ’ s went to press , we marked one year since the announcement of a new biomarker for Parkinson ’ s — a test for misfolded alphasynuclein that launched the “ year like no other ” for Parkinson ’ s research and established a new , biological era for the disease .
In less than a year after the biomarker news , there is a second major research milestone . A new staging framework for Parkinson ’ s , developed by a diverse international group of patients , researchers and drug industry representatives , lays out the framework for defining PD based on its biology . You can read more about this remarkable advance in this issue .
Staging takes the biomarker to the next critical step : applying the new test to how we objectively understand and define the disease . With these new tools , MJFF can act quickly to do what we do best — link academia , researchers and industry and lead the way to show how to apply these breakthroughs to their programs , assuming much of the financial risk and driving faster results .
This new biological era in Parkinson ’ s disease is a seismic shift for research , and for the many people and families with PD . Countless new doors are now open to better and more effective clinical trials , inviting researchers to test and prove therapies in ways that are smarter , faster and less expensive .
Accelerating trials will speed drugs through the clinical pipeline to FDA approval and into the hands of people who need them now . And , with better trials , medications can be targeted more precisely to patients ’ needs . Personalized treatments are the result of knowing how the underlying biology of an individual drives their symptoms and disease variability , the rate of disease progression and how they respond to a treatment . We are now closer than ever to this promise being fulfilled .
Last year ’ s biomarker breakthrough was catalyzed by MJFF ’ s “ de-risking ” approach to streamlining the discovery process by increasing collaboration , sharing data , and raising and deploying philanthropic support to fill funding and knowledge gaps in research .