The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF)

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) is leading the charge toward a world without Parkinson’s disease (PD). A renaissance is taking place in Parkinson’s research and therapeutic development.

Michael J. Fox. Foundation – Circuits & Cellular Targets for Parkinson’s Symptoms: Pre-clinical Program

Subsidy: $250,000 to $500,000

Deadline: Proposal: 27 September 2022 / Full proposal: 12 January 2023

Funding rate: 100%

Project duration: 1-2 years

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

Scope: 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.

Read more about this call

Michael J. Fox. Foundation – Data-Driven Subtyping & Stratification Program

Subsidy: $50,000 to $375,000

Deadline: Proposal: 27 September 2022 / Full proposal: 12 January 2023

Funding rate: 100%

Project duration: 12 – 18 months after initiation of award

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

Scope: This program supports efforts to identify and validate Parkinson’s disease (PD) subtypes using existing data. Outcomes should be leveraged toward improving biomarkers, therapeutic/clinical trial strategies and precision medicine. Funding will support projects around:

• Analysis of existing clinical and molecular data sets to derive, characterize or validate subtypes of PD
• Identification of clinical features which best cluster with, or within, specified risk groups in PD
• Identification of clinical, behavioral and molecular indicators, or combinations thereof, that are most significant in identifying subtypes of PD
• Analysis of clinical and molecular features linking or distinguishing different genetic subtypes of PD (e.g., LRRK2, GBA) or identification of features consistent across carriers regardless of disease status
• Identification of shared and/or discriminatory features between PD, related parkinsonisms and other synucleinopathies (e.g., multiple system atrophy)
• Identification of novel prodromal indicators or ante diagnostic features enriched in PD patient populations
• Primary drivers of age at onset (AAO) for given background/risk group

MJFF is particularly interested in efforts that (i) focus on objective and data-driven strategies to identify subtypes, (ii) express expertise in analysis of the data types included in proposal and (iii) will inform clinical trial design and precision medicine.

Read more about this call

Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders

Subsidy: $180,000

Funding rate: 100%

Deadlines: 8 December 2022

Project duration: 2 years

Consortium: Academic centers worldwide that are able to train a movement disorder clinician-researcher over a two-year period are eligible.

Scope: As the demand for movement disorder specialists increases, not enough neurologists are receiving vital training in Parkinson’s and related conditions. To address this need, The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), in collaboration with longtime partner the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, launched the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders. The program annually funds academic centers to train a new movement disorder clinician-researcher over a two-year period and is growing an international, collaborative network of next-generation leaders in Parkinson’s research and care.

Read more about the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship

About the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF)

Since their Foundation’s inception, they have operated with one single-minded goal: putting themselves out of business by finding the cure for Parkinson’s. Driven by this admittedly unusual approach, they have designed a milestone-driven, innovative and high-risk model to identify and accelerate those ideas with the greatest potential to solve field-wide problems, accelerate the pace of research and make a tangible impact on patients’ unmet needs. Everything they do is in service of their mission to eradicate Parkinson’s altogether.

Visit the MJFF website for more information

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