Spring / Summer 2025 | Research 13
Picking Promising Targets
290
Targets 229
Targets
59
Targets 21
Targets
9 Months
Assembled a list of more than 290 targets using Foundation knowledge and survey results from the scientific community. |
Filtered the list to 229 targets based on known liabilities. |
Tapped leaders in the field to fill out scorecards, which were used to further narrow the list to 59 targets. |
Generated deeper profiles for each target to prioritize approximately 21 targets for further exploration over the next 3 years, with 5 targets for research efforts in 2025. |
February 2024 October 2024
This program, called Targets to Therapies, sets out to accelerate and expand the scope of drug development. The goal is to turbocharge research into promising Parkinson’ s disease treatments, making a tangible impact on people with PD and their families.
The MJFF team, along with leaders in research from industry and academia, narrowed the original list, evaluating each target to determine if additional MJFF investments are merited to facilitate research carried out by the biotechnology sector. They settled on five targets for further study, with an additional seven on deck for the next round.
In March 2025, MJFF hosted the first in a series of town hall meetings around these five promising, underexplored targets, bringing together researchers from all over the world.
“ Understanding potential targets lays the groundwork for a new generation of research that could bring impactful new treatments with it,” said Padmanabhan, who leads the Targets to Therapies initiative.
By year’ s end, the MJFF team plans to assemble a comprehensive knowledge base of insights from scientists around these promising targets. Anyone can use this resource to further drug development, which lays the groundwork for industry partners to step in and develop therapies.
“ We want to take the risk out of the early stages of drug discovery, make what we learn available broadly and advance the most promising targets to the more expensive phases of drug development,” Padmanabhan explained.“ You won’ t have to start from scratch to develop a drug for one of our targets, and we hope that inspires people to try new approaches.”