A group of Penn Medicine researchers has been awarded an $18 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging to explore the causes of cognitive decline in Lewy body diseases, such as Parkinson’s and dementia.
This initiative aims to determine the biomarkers that predict which individuals are likely to have these diseases, as a part of a larger goal to develop treatments that slow the progression of disease. The grant will fund four projects across a range of disciplines in the Perelman School of Medicine.
The Penn researchers will investigate why some patients experience cognitive decline sooner than others and how various therapies can target these differences.
One initiative, spearheaded by Neurology professor David Irwin, will study how α-synuclein is linked to other proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Virginia Lee, John H. Ware 3rd Endowed Professor in Alzheimer’s Research, will lead another project examining how the mis-folding and clustering of proteins contributes to the rate at which they spread throughout the brain.
Alice Chen-Plotkin, the Parker Family professor of Neurology and director of the Molecular Integration in Neurological Diagnosis Initiative, will direct the new program as a whole. She will conduct research on genetic markers that may be correlated to specific symptoms of Lewy body diseases, utilizing tissue samples.
In another project, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Kelvin Luk will use gene-editing techniques on mice to explore the possibility of altering genetic variations to slow disease progression.
These interdisciplinary efforts are intended to accelerate the development of novel therapies, which have the potential to drastically improve the quality of life for Parkinson’s and dementia patients. Penn Medicine has engaged in similar treatment development efforts in the past. In 2019, a team of researchers received a $20 million grant to study the early detection of Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
“While these projects have specific focuses, the multi-project nature of the program allows us to collaborate to learn how these different systems work together to cause individual expressions of disease,” Chen-Plotkin told Penn Medicine News. “We hope that the constant feedback from the collaborators will accelerate our research and help us translate our findings into real therapies that improve the lives of individuals and their families.”
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