An Edinburgh startup has won a 拢4.7 million grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson鈥檚 Research.
Lario Therapeutics is developing precision medicines for epileptic and neurological disorders. The programme will be in collaboration with the Oxford Parkinson鈥檚 Disease Centre, which will also be delivering key science as part of the grant.
Parkinson鈥檚 disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder occurring when brain cells that make dopamine, which coordinates movement, stop working or die. Symptoms are lifelong and worsen over time, including motor dysfunction – such as tremor, slowness, stiffness, walking and balance problems – as well as problems such as depression and memory problems.聽
More than 10m people worldwide are estimated to be living with Parkinson鈥檚, with no current cure.
The grant will be used to fund Lario鈥檚 preclinical programme investigating selective CaV2.3 calcium channel inhibition as a novel and disease-modifying approach for treatment of Parkinson鈥檚.聽
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There is extensive literature linking calcium channels to pathology of the disease, and it has been demonstrated in preclinical experimental studies that the deletion of CaV2.3 can have a protective effect against Parkinson鈥檚 disease progression.聽
鈥淲e are grateful to MJFF for their funding support for Lario鈥檚 efforts to test and develop a potential new therapy designed to prevent the loss of neurons that causes Parkinson鈥檚 disease,鈥� said Tom Otis, Ph.D., Professor of Neuroscience UCL and Chief Scientific Officer of Lario Therapeutics.聽
鈥淚f our research is successful, this will represent an important new treatment option for patients.鈥�
Richard Wade-Martins, MA, DPhil, Professor of Molecular Neuroscience, University of Oxford, and head of the Oxford Parkinson鈥檚 Disease Centre, said: 鈥淚 am excited to partner with the team at Lario Therapeutics 鈥� having grant funding from MJFF is a testament to the impact this study aims to bring to patients.聽
鈥淥ur research centre works to understand the development of Parkinson鈥檚, with the ultimate aim of targeting the molecular mechanisms of disease, to prevent disease onset or to delay progression. We see great potential in the CaV2.3 programme and are very happy to collaborate to study patient stem cell-derived neuronal models as part of the research.鈥�
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