A community-led initiative to de-risk and advance Parkinson's disease therapeutic targets

Alexandra Vaiana; Jonathan Behr; Ryan Birol; Cornelis Blauwendraat; Bradford Casey; Kushan Chowdhury; Martin Citron; Joshua Crapser; Victoria Dardov; Fiona Ducotterd; Sonya Dumanis; John Dunlop; Michelle Durborow; Brian Fiske; Jessica Golden; Jonas Hannestad; Wendy Hung; Jennifer Kemp; Robin Kleiman; Adam Knight; Andrew Koemeter-Cox; Bruce Leuchter; Bejamin A Logsdon; Rita Marreiros; Julie E Miller; Amanda Mitchell; Pooja Mukherjee; Grace Navarro; Matthew R Nelson; Karoly Nikolich; Tom Otis; Nicole Polinski; Shima Rastegar-Pouyani; Alastair D Reith; Ekemini Riley; Lee Rubin; Mina Ryten; Jessica Sadick; Tina Schwabe; Todd Sherer; Sarah Silvergleid; Andrew Singleton; Lara St Clair; Jan Stoehr; David J Stone; Julianna Sullivan; Nicole Tanenbaum; Elisa Tinelli; Kate Trimble; Yifei Wang; Stacie Weninger; Nicolás Wiggenhauser; Stephen Wood; Darryle Schoepp; Virginie Buggia-Prevot; Shalini Padmanabhan; Gaia Skibinski

doi:10.1038/s41531-025-01039-3

A community-led initiative to de-risk and advance Parkinson's disease therapeutic targets

NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2025 Jun 20;11(1):179. doi: 10.1038/s41531-025-01039-3.

Authors

Alexandra Vaiana¹, Jonathan Behr^{2

3}, Ryan Birol¹, Cornelis Blauwendraat⁴, Bradford Casey¹, Kushan Chowdhury⁵, Martin Citron⁶, Joshua Crapser⁷, Victoria Dardov⁸, Fiona Ducotterd⁹, Sonya Dumanis⁴, John Dunlop¹⁰, Michelle Durborow¹, Brian Fiske¹, Jessica Golden¹, Jonas Hannestad¹¹, Wendy Hung¹², Jennifer Kemp¹³, Robin Kleiman¹⁴, Adam Knight¹⁵, Andrew Koemeter-Cox¹, Bruce Leuchter¹⁶, Bejamin A Logsdon¹⁷, Rita Marreiros¹⁸, Julie E Miller¹⁹, Amanda Mitchell²⁰, Pooja Mukherjee²¹, Grace Navarro¹, Matthew R Nelson^{22

23}, Karoly Nikolich²⁴, Tom Otis²⁵, Nicole Polinski¹, Shima Rastegar-Pouyani²⁶, Alastair D Reith²⁷, Ekemini Riley⁴, Lee Rubin²⁸, Mina Ryten^{29

30}, Jessica Sadick³¹, Tina Schwabe³², Todd Sherer¹, Sarah Silvergleid³³, Andrew Singleton³⁴, Lara St Clair¹, Jan Stoehr³⁵, David J Stone³⁵, Julianna Sullivan¹, Nicole Tanenbaum³⁶, Elisa Tinelli³⁷, Kate Trimble¹, Yifei Wang³⁸, Stacie Weninger³⁹, Nicolás Wiggenhauser⁴⁰, Stephen Wood⁴¹, Darryle Schoepp⁴², Virginie Buggia-Prevot³¹, Shalini Padmanabhan¹, Gaia Skibinski⁴³

Affiliations

¹ The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, New York, NY, USA.
² SV Health Investors, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Dementia Discovery Fund, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Coalition for Aligning Science, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
⁵ Biotech Connection Bay Area, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁶ UCB Pharma, Brussels, Belgium.
⁷ Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁸ Technome, Herndon, VA, USA.
⁹ University College London, Great Britain, UK.
¹⁰ Aliada Therapeutics, Boston, MA, USA.
¹¹ Gain Therapeutics, Bethesda, MD, USA.
¹² University of California, San Franscisco, San Franscisco, CA, USA.
¹³ Strategies for Open Science (Stratos), Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
¹⁴ Myrobalan Therapeutics, Medford, MA, USA.
¹⁵ Neuro.VC, San Franscisco, CA, USA.
¹⁶ Neurvati Neurosciences, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁷ Cajal Neuroscience Inc., Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁸ Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Franscisco, CA, USA.
¹⁹ Departments of Neuroscience and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
²⁰ Independent Consultant, Seattle, WA, USA.
²¹ University of California Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Berkeley, CA, USA.
²² Genscience LLC, New York, NY, USA.
²³ Deerfield Management, New York City, NY, USA.
²⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
²⁵ Lario Therapeutics Ltd., Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
²⁶ Memory and Aging Center, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²⁷ Breckenfield Consulting Ltd., London, UK.
²⁸ Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
²⁹ UK Dementia Research Institute and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
³⁰ Department of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Cambridge, UK.
³¹ Valo Health Inc., Lexington, MA, USA.
³² Nine Square Therapeutics, South San Franscisco, CA, USA.
³³ Schrödinger Inc., New York, NY, USA.
³⁴ Global Parkinson's Genetics Program, Chevy Chase, MD, USA.
³⁵ AbbVie, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³⁶ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
³⁷ Golgi Neurosciences S.r.l, Milan, Italy.
³⁸ Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
³⁹ F-Prime Capital Partners, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴⁰ Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
⁴¹ Neuron23 Inc., South San Franscisco, CA, USA.
⁴² Independent Pharmaceutical Research Consultant, Ardmore, PA, USA.
⁴³ The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, New York, NY, USA. gskibinski@michaeljfox.org.

Abstract

Identifying effective therapeutic targets for Parkinson's disease (PD) is challenging, with no current disease-modifying therapies available. To address this, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research launched the Targets to Therapies (T2T) initiative, uniting experts to prioritize and validate promising targets. T2T aims to develop validation strategies, create comprehensive target data profiles, and build tools to support drug development, ultimately accelerating the discovery of new therapies for PD patients.

Publication types

Review