PA R K I N S O N ’ S D I S E A S E Approximately
500,000 Americans
have Parkinson’s,
1.2 Million and by 2030, it will be
Parkinson’s costs the United States roughly
$52 Billion per year
There are currently
0
disease-modifying treatments
Despite over a century of research, we still do not understand what causes Parkinson’s.
At NYSCF,
we are making stem cells from Parkinson’s patients and using them to create the actual human brain cells affected by the disease.
This gives us a living window into what causes Parkinson’s and opens the door for the development of effective therapies.
Illustration of Parkinson's disease by William Richard Gowers
We have created one of the largest collections of Parkinson’s patient cells and clinical data.
Our Parkinson’s biobank is a unique resource for scientists to glean insights into what leads to different forms of the disease, creating new opportunities to stop Parkinson’s where it starts. Parkinson’s Patients
Parkinson’s Biobank
STEM CELLS ARE THE KEY TO CURING PARKINSON’S
STUDYING A HUMAN DISEASE IN HUMAN CELLS Most Parkinson’s treatments are discovered using mice, who do not get the disease. Using stem cells, we can generate the actual human brain cells affected by Parkinson’s — without invasive surgery. This is revealing how Parkinson’s-affected cells function, interact, and degenerate, just as they would in the human brain.
DEVELOPING MORE EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS Current Parkinson’s treatments only mask symptoms, can cause debilitating side effects, and occasionally lapse in their effectiveness. Our biobank of patient stem cells provides us with diverse biological avatars to test findings from genetic and clinical data, helping us develop targeted therapies that will effectively treat all types of patients.
CURING PARKINSON’S BY FINDING ITS CAUSES Knowing how Parkinson’s brain cells get sick will help us discover how to save them. Stem cells allow us to tease apart the complex factors that initiate and worsen the disease, so that we can look for cures that target causative factors rather than symptoms. For example, gastrointestinal issues often begin before motor symptoms, so we are working to understand the role of the gut microbiome in Parkinson’s onset.
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