Study Rationale: Antibodies are essential for detecting proteins, but nearly 50% of commercial antibodies fail to work reliably—like a GPS that’s only right half the time. In Parkinson’s research, this leads to conflicting results and wasted resources. In response, The Michael J. Fox Foundation identified 14 high-priority protein targets with urgent antibody needs. YCharOS, established in 2020, will test an average of 15 antibodies per target using a standardized protocol. All validation data will be shared openly in a public database. By helping researchers identify high-quality antibodies, YCharOS enhances reproducibility and accelerates discovery—bringing us closer to understanding, diagnosing, and ultimately ending Parkinson’s disease.
Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the YCharOS initiative can identify selective, renewable, and ethically sourced research antibodies for most proteins implicated in Parkinson’s disease from the existing pool of over 8 million commercial antibodies.
Study Design: Our 14 industry partners will share antibodies targeting 14 key Parkinson’s disease proteins, with an average of 15 antibodies per protein. We will systematically test these antibodies using control cell lines expressing over 10,000 proteins—excluding the target protein, resulting in 9,999 proteins. If an antibody signals in these cells, it will be flagged as non-specific. All testing will follow our standardized protocol, as outlined in Ayoubi et al. Nature Protocols, 2024, ensuring consistent, rigorous evaluation for each antibody.
Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s disease: Hundreds of thousands of Parkinson’s patients have had their genes sequenced to identify disease-linked variants. To study how these variants influence the disease, researchers need antibodies to detect the corresponding proteins—the gene products. Once causality is established, these antibodies can help assess the proteins' potential as biomarkers for diagnosis or monitoring.
Next Steps for Development: The successful identification of antibodies will enable further research into the correlation between these proteins and Parkinson’s disease. Clinical application could involve validating these antibodies in human brain tissue through immunohistochemistry. This would enhance our understanding of protein localization in the brain, comparing expression in Parkinson’s postmortem tissue and providing insights into their potential as drug targets and biomarkers.