Circuits & Cellular Targets for Parkinson’s Symptoms – Pre-clinical Program

This program seeks to further our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms that contribute to Parkinson’s disease with pre-clinical models. It also aims to identify the specific links between brain regions, cell types and signaling pathways to behavioral endpoints related to motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). 

Funding will support projects that aim to:  

• Characterize the emergence, time course, progression and severity of behavioral symptoms  

• Identify and manipulate neural circuits whose activity underlies or modifies behavioral symptoms 

• Identify cell types, neurotransmitter and neuromodulator receptors, or intracellular signaling pathways that are enriched in the brain regions and neural circuits contributing to behavioral symptoms 

• Test pre-clinical therapeutic interventions to ameliorate behavioral symptoms 

MJFF prioritizes proposals focused on addressing the unmet clinical needs of people with Parkinson’s, modifying symptoms through circuit stimulation or gene therapy and using translatable work across species in order to best emulate people with Parkinson’s disease, while identifying biological targets and pathways.  

Proposed models include:  

• Rodent and non-human primate systems 

• Genetic, toxin, lesion or protein aggregation-based models of Parkinson’s disease 

For this round, MJFF will not consider proposals focused on:  

• Clinical or epidemiological studies to monitor and/or treat Parkinson’s symptoms in human volunteers  

• Clinical studies to observe or manipulate neural circuits or brain regions contributing to Parkinson’s symptoms in human volunteers  

• in vitro cell culture models to study cells that may contribute to Parkinson’s symptoms. 

• Use of invertebrate pre-clinical models of Parkinson’s disease, including D. melanogaster or C. elegans. 

Industry and academic researchers in and outside the United States are welcome to apply.  

Watch a video on this funding program that covers our application and review processes.  

Email grants@michaeljfox.org with questions.