Fox Foundation and bit.bio announce first Parkinson’s project
10 Mar 2024
The Michael J Fox Foundation and Cambridge synthetic biology company bit.bio have announced their first collaborative project to produce human cell products for research and drug discovery to combat Parkinson’s disease (PD).
The object is to provide a scalable alternative to the present reliance on animal or sub-optimal human cell models, with money allocated by the foundation on a project by project basis.
Access to a ‘physiologically relevant’ human cell models will help researchers to understand and isolate the various pathways that lead to the loss of dopaminergic neurons that characterises PD , enabling insights into cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in disease pathogenesis.
PD, which affects up to 2% of over-65s is expected to exceed 12 million individuals by 2040, is a progressive disease, accompanied by movement disorders, depression and memory loss.
Currently, Parkinson’s disease research mostly relies on animal models and human iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons, generated via directed differentiation protocols. These protocols present significant drawbacks as they are lengthy, difficult to reproduce and yield heterogeneous populations.
MJFF director of research resources Nicole K. Polinski said: “We are thrilled to partner with bit.bio and to leverage the company’s unique platform for the generation of human cells. Parkinson’s disease researchers urgently need accessible and well-characterised tools to improve our understanding of PD, and to help deliver therapeutic breakthroughs.
“The consistency and scalability of bit.bio’s human cell products will provide a very important addition to the suite of tools we know to be necessary.”
Photo: Matthias Zomer
