Dr. Briana De Miranda 00:00:00
Can we actually prevent Parkinson's disease from starting? And are there ways that we could modify our environment to really prevent Parkinson's?
Dr. James Beck 00:00:14
Hi, I'm James Beck, Chief Scientific Officer of the Parkinson's Foundation. Every year, the Parkinson's Foundation funds the most exciting and promising research ideas in the Parkinson's field. Research we have funded has led to groundbreaking advances in Parkinson's science.
We believe the next breakthrough can occur in any lab, from any researcher, which is why we support all types of science. From neurologists who treat patients every day to highly specialized researchers investigating neural pathways. Today you'll hear from three researchers whose studies were funded by the Parkinson's Foundation. From environmental factors to cognition, the diversity of their studies demonstrates how research is helping us to further understand Parkinson's disease.
Dr. James Beck 00:00:54
Understanding the biology of Parkinson's is essential to defeating this disease. While there is often no single cause for Parkinson's disease, most cases are likely caused by an interaction between a person's genes and their environment. Dr. Briana De Miranda of the University of Alabama at Birmingham received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Parkinson's Foundation to study how environmental factors may contribute to Parkinson's disease risk.
Dr. Briana De Miranda 00:01:18
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that's very influenced by environment. And that could be anything from pesticides to air pollution to heavy metals. For how much we're exposed to these things, we don't always include them in our Parkinson's research as much as we could. And so I think trying to really find a place to put these gene-environment interactions in our larger Parkinson's disease studies really gets at this idea of, can we actually prevent Parkinson's disease from starting? And are there ways that we could modify our environment to really prevent Parkinson's?
Dr. James Beck 00:01:57
Non-movement symptoms of Parkinson's disease that affect the gut, including constipation and inflammatory bowel disease, often occur before a person develops movement symptoms of Parkinson's. Dr. Timothy Sampson of Emory University, a Parkinson's Foundation Center of Excellence, is a recipient of a Parkinson's Foundation Stanley Fahn Junior Faculty Award. He is investigating how Parkinson's-linked pesticides affect the gut microbiome, which is the complex community of bacteria and other microbes in a person's intestinal tract.
Dr. Timothy Sampson 00:02:24
The Stanley Fahn Award is funding my lab to investigate how the gut microbiome responds to Parkinson's disease-linked pesticides. The big question that we have is we know that people with PD have a very different gut microbiome than people who don't have PD, but we don't know why it's different and how those differences arose. So we're really trying to find what are those triggers that gave rise to the different microbiome to begin with.
Dr. James Beck 00:02:52
Parkinson's symptoms are diverse and can change everything from the way a person moves to the way they experience the world. While there are various ways to help manage Parkinson's symptoms, the root cause for many symptoms remains unaddressed. Dr. Kevin Wilkins of Stanford University was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Parkinson's Foundation to study how cognitive issues in people with Parkinson's may impact even simple movements, such as walking.
Dr. Kevin Wilkins 00:03:15
That project was really looking at trying to understand some of the cognitive issues some patients with Parkinson's deal with. So, issues with memory or attention or multitasking. Parkinson's right now, luckily, does have some available therapies for some of the motor symptoms that people deal with, things like tremor or moving slow, whether it's medication or deep brain stimulation. For us, it's really about revolutionizing the therapy portion of, okay, we see these problems, how can we address it? I've been very excited that over these two years, by building our understanding, now we've been able to move into, well, let's start thinking about novel treatments.
Dr. James Beck 00:03:57
Our approach to funding impactful Parkinson's research is like managing a garden. We don't plant seeds and walk away. We actively tend the garden, try a variety of seeds over time, and fertilize and build upon our successes to maximize our investment and keep producing science that moves toward a cure. To learn more about how we're advancing Parkinson's disease research toward a cure, visit our website, Parkinson.org/Research.
