Parkinson’s boost in €10bn EU funding round

Europe

Author: George TheohariPublished: 29 July 2015

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EU announces investment in new treatments for Parkinson’s

Parkinson’s will be one of the main health areas to benefit from funding under the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) latest investment round.

The EIB – the EU’s long-term lending institution – has approved €10 billion of loans for a variety of strategic projects around the world.

These include medical research into Parkinson’s and epilepsy, as well as a host of infrastructure projects and investment in corporate research in the energy, automobile, and textile sectors.

Details of the investment in Parkinson’s have yet to be announced, but previously the EIB has provided funds for the development of new treatments by the Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial.

In 2010-13 the EIB committed €50 million in loans to Bial’s research and development activities on drugs for epilepsy, cardiovascular affections and Parkinson’s disease.

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Musical therapy study to receive $20 million in funding

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is donating US $20 million to a medical trial researching the effects of musical therapy on brain conditions, including Parkinson’s. The trial will be carried out by the Sound Health initiative, a joint partnership between the NIH and The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The initiative was created to expand current knowledge of how listening, performing and creating music could be harnessed for health and wellness. Francis S. Collins, director of the NIH, said: “We know that the beat of a metronome can steady the gait of someone with Parkinson’s disease, for example, but we don’t fully understand how that happens. “If we can pinpoint in the brain how music therapy works through the use of imaging and biomarkers, the hope is that we can improve its effectiveness and apply it more broadly to improve the lives of millions of people.”

Researchers develop automated system to diagnose Parkinson’s

In an international study, researchers from the US, Germany and Austria have used a non-invasive MRI method to develop an automated system that can diagnose Parkinson’s. As part of the study – published in medical journal ‘The Lancet Digital Health’ – researchers worked with 1,002 patients and used an imaging method that measures how water molecules diffuse in the brain. This helped them to identify where neurodegeneration is occurring. Researchers hope this will help improve the accuracy of early Parkinson’s diagnoses – which they estimate to be around 58%. Dr David Vaillancourt, who led the study, said: “Our method may help to reduce the number of misdiagnosed cases in the future. Since these diseases require unique treatment plans and different medications, and clinical trials testing new medications require the correct diagnosis, getting it right is important for patient care.”

MJFF announces $10 million competition for Parkinson’s

The Michael J Fox Foundation has launched the ‘Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition’ – a US $10 million programme aiming to develop a game-changing tool for Parkinson’s research. As part of the competition, participating teams will compete in a scientific race to build a device that is able to identify alpha-synuclein – a protein closely associated with Parkinson’s. Although almost everyone diagnosed with Parkinson’s has clumps of alpha-synuclein in the brain, these are currently only visible when analysing tissue during autopsies. The competition is named after Ken Griffin, CEO of US investment firm Citadel who has given US $7.5 million funding to the programme. Griffin – whose father has Parkinson’s – said: “If we have the imaging capability to observe the pathology that arises from protein-misfolding in real time, and understand how drugs are impacting people in real time, that would be a major advance.”

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Parkinson’s boost in €10bn EU funding round

Europe

Author: George TheohariPublished: 29 July 2015

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Parkinson’s boost in €10bn EU funding round

Europe

Author: George TheohariPublished: 29 July 2015

Prep: Cook: Serves:

Last Month

Next Month

Share this story

Comments

Related articles

Recipes & Nutrition

Tasty, nutritious and easy-to-prepare meals for people with Parkinson’s

Interviews

What’s it like to be a DJ with Parkinson’s?

Resources & Tools

Tips for dealing with a Parkinson’s diagnosis

Musical therapy study to receive $20 million in funding

Researchers develop automated system to diagnose Parkinson’s

MJFF announces $10 million competition for Parkinson’s

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