The Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) initiative, in partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, announced yesterday their first-round grantees of the ASAP Collaborative Research Network (CRN). Multidisciplinary investigators in 21 teams from 60 institutions across 11 countries seek to accelerate targeted basic research and move us towards uncovering the biological causes of Parkinson's onset and progression.
MCB professors of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology James Hurley and Donald Rio are leading two of the teams. Hurley's team, which includes MCB assistant professor Eunyong Park, will focus on mitochondria and their role in causing the death of dopamine neurons in the brain. Rio's team, which includes MCB associate professor Dirk Hockemeyer and MCB assistant professor Helen Bateup, will investigate how heritable Parkinson's genes compound the risk of developing the disease.
Learn more about ASAP, their CRN, and the awardees here: