Yale opens new center for advanced Parkinson’s research

The American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) is funding a new APDA Center for Advanced Research at the Yale University School of Medicine, the newest of nine such centers in its U.S. network, in recognition of the school’s work on the causes and potential personalized treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

A total of $1.125 million will be provided to the nine centers for 2024-25, the association announced on a website. Centers are selected by APDA for their ability to advance research, provide educational opportunities, and provide clinical and dedicated patient care.

The new center will be the first to focus on developing precision therapies for Parkinson’s disease, treatments tailored to a person’s particular genetic makeup or disease characteristics, Yale reported in a university news release.

The recognition comes with seed funding for studies aimed at uncovering key pathways or steps in the development of Parkinson’s disease and supporting work on more targeted therapies, the press release said. The funds awarded to Yale, the total amount of which was not disclosed, will also help train new researchers and support additional educational efforts.

APDA supports larger work on cell recycling and mitochondria

“Our goal is to develop the future of precision medicine for Parkinson’s disease by bringing together the entire Yale community – physicians, scientists, researchers and engineers – to collaborate and identify the underlying genes and mechanisms,” said Clemens Scherzer, MD, a professor of neurology, who will direct the center.

Scherzer is also director of the Adams Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research at Yale, where he leads work discovering genes, drug targets and biomarkers associated with Parkinson’s and developing personalized treatments for the disease.

One APDA-funded project is a collaboration between three Yale Medical School laboratories whose work suggests that problems in the recycling mechanisms of small vesicles called synaptic vesicles may be a cause of Parkinson’s disease in patients.

Nerve cells communicate by releasing signaling molecules called neurotransmitters, which are contained in synaptic vesicles. After the neurotransmitters are released, the vesicles must return to the cell and be recycled so they can be used again.

Scherzer’s team previously created a map of Parkinson’s gene activity that includes genes that another Yale lab found are involved in synaptic vesicle recycling. In addition, the alpha-synuclein protein, which becomes toxic and accumulates in the nerve cells of patients, could also play a role.

“Now we are joining forces to test whether these genes linked to Parkinson’s disease work together with alpha-synuclein to disrupt this key mechanism,” said Scherzer.

In another project, a team led by Monika Sharma, PhD, will investigate whether the beta-2 adrenergic receptor, which binds norepinephrine (a neurotransmitter), mediates changes in mitochondrial function in Parkinson’s disease.

Mitochondria are cellular compartments that cells need to produce energy, and problems in the functioning of mitochondria are commonly seen in Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases.

Researchers will assess whether loss of norepinephrine, which occurs in early stages of the disease, contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction.

“The center will be a link that brings together all Parkinson’s researchers at Yale. It will help create young researchers and launch high-risk projects that would otherwise not be funded,” said Scherzer.