PARKINSON'S DISEASE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES
FIVE SUPPLEMENTARY RESEARCH AWARDS, BRINGING TOTAL FOR THE YEAR BEGINNING
JULY 1, 2001 TO 24
New York, April 12 - The Parkinson's Disease Foundation has announced five
additional research awards for the year beginning July 1, 2001. This new
wave brings to 24 the total number of awards made by the Foundation's
International Research Grants Program for the forthcoming fiscal year.
These awards, which average $35,000, cover a wide range of basic and applied
research initiatives designed to provide clues to understanding the cause,
charting the cure and managing the progress of Parkinson's disease, a
degenerative neurological condition that afflicts as many as one million
Americans and many more around the world.
The awards were announced by Stanley Fahn, M.D., the Foundation's scientific
director, following a Board Meeting on April 10 in which some $475,000 in
additional funds for research was approved. Approximately $175,000 of the
new funds will be for the five new awards. The balance of about $300,000
will be set aside for new research opportunities, including a possible new
matching-funds initiative from the National Institutes of Health.
These new awards, when combined with the earlier "center" grants to Columbia
University and Cornell University in New York and Rush-Presbyterian St.
Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, bring the total of research funds
distributed to date by PDF in the current fiscal year (which ends June 30,
2001) to some $3.5 million.
The final wave of 20 awards, which was announced April 5, included one from a
scientist who received a duplicate award for the same project from another
foundation. She has since declined the PDF award.
Names of all the 24 awardees and their projects follow:
Investigator: Ottavio Arancio, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: The Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research,
NY
Project: Alpha-synuclein Involvement in Transmitter Release
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Anna M. Barrett, M.D.
Institution: Penn State College of Medicine, PA
Project: Do Visual Attention and Imagery Deficits Affect Driving in
Parkinsonism?
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Richard Camicioli, M.D.
Institution: University of Alberta
Project: Genetic Modulation of Clinical Course in Pathologically
Proven Parkinson's Disease
Award: $34,874
Investigator: Lee Anna Cunningham, Ph.D.
Institution: University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, NM
Project: Bone Marrow Stem Cell Delivery of GDNF in MPTP
Mice
Award: $33,854
Investigator: Anthone W. Dunah, Ph.D.
Institution: The General Hospital Corporation d/b/a Massachusetts
General Hospital
Project: Dopamine Receptor Dependent Subcellular Trafficking of NMDG
Glutamate Receptors in Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Andrea Giuffrida, Ph.D.
Institution: University of California - Irvine, CA
Project: Role of Endogenous Cannibinoids in L-DOPA Dykinesias
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Yi He, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: Baylor College of Medicine, TX
Project: Role of Minocycline in the Inhibition of Microglial Activation
and Protection of Dopaminergic Neurons in 6-OHDA Induced Parkinsonian Animal
Model
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Tamara Hershey, Ph.D.
Institution: Washington University, School of Medicine
Project: Neural Modulation of Working Memory by Levodopa in
Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Un Jung Kang, MD
Institution: The University of Chicago, IL
Project: The Effects of Tetrahydrobiopterin on Oxidative Stress and
Mitochondrial Function
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Zelma Kiss, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: University of Calgary, Canada
Project: Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for
Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Christine Klein, M.D.
Institution: Medical University of Luebeck, Germany
Project: Evaluation of a Large Cohort of Patients with Sporadic or
Familial Parkinson's Disease for Involvement of the Parkin Gene
Award: $32,420
Investigator: Julie Lotharius, Ph.D.
Institution: Lund University, Sweden
Project: Do Mutations in the Alpha-synuclein Gene Cause Dopamine-dependent
Oxidative Stress and Neurodegeneration in a Genetic Model of Parkinson's
Disease?
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Jau-Shin Lou, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: Oregon Health Sciences University
Project: Characterizing the Effects of Repetitive Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation Frequency and Intensity on Cortical
Excitability and Physical Fatigue in Patients with
Parkinson's Disease
Award: $33,093
Investigator: Walter C. Low, Ph.D.
Institution: University of Minnesota, MN
Project: Conversion of Human Adult Bone Marrow Stem Cells into Dopamine
Neurons
Award: $34,700
Investigator: Allen S. Mandir, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: The John Hopkins University, School of Medicine
Project: Mechanisms of Programmed Cell Death in a Model of
Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Ivar Mendez, M.D., Ph.D., FRCSC, FACS
Institution: Dalhousie University, Novia Scotia
Project: Multiple Target Sites for Neural Transplantation in the Rat Model
of Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: David S. Park, Ph.D.
Institution: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute - NRI, Canada
Project: Role of CDK5 in an MPTP Model of Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Manisha Patel, Ph.D.
Institution: National Jewish Medical and Research Center, CO
Project: Mitochondrial Aconitase Inactivation in MPTP
Neurotoxicity
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Brenda A. Schulman, Ph.D.
Institution: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, TN
Project: Structural and Functional Studies of the Parkin Ubiquitin
Ligase
Award: $35,000
Investigator: John J. Sidtis, Ph.D., L.P.
Diana Van Lancker, Ph.D., CCC/SLP
Institution: New York University, NY
Project: Functional Imaging of Speech in Parkinson's Disease
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Ruth Walker, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: Bronx Veterans Research Foundation, NY
Project: Effect of STN Lesions and Stimulation Upon Striatal
Neurotransmitter Release in PD Models.
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Katherine L. Widnell, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: Johns Hopkins, MD
Project: Neuronal Dopamine Transporter Associated Proteins
(DTRAP)
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Ming Yang, M.D., Ph.D.
Institution: Thomas Jefferson University, PA
Project: Transplantation of Neural Stem Cells into a Rat Model of
Parkinson's Disease.
Award: $35,000
Investigator: Xiaoxi Zhuang, Ph.D.
Institution: The University of Chicago, IL
Project: An Approach to Integrate Transgenes into Desirable Locus for
Inducible Expression in Dopamine Neurons
Award: $35,000
If you wish further information on the awards, a description of each project
will be on our website in a week or so.
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