KineMed wins $1.2m grant to advance brain-process biomarker research

KineMed received $1.2m reinvestment from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for the further development of kinetic biomarkers predictive of Parkinson’s disease changes ahead of symptoms.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, research programs vice president Mark Frasier said the lack of validated biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease is a major hurdle to PD drug development.

"KineMed’s cross-sectional study will look to confirm existing data that we have funded, which has identified biomarkers that are sensitive to subtle changes early in the disease process," Frasier added.

The neuro-biomarker program aims at identifying and measuring relevant biochemical changes associated with pathology at the cellular level, to develop indicators of disease progression and regression.

The quantitative measures can replace cumbersome symptomatic measures that are sensitive to random fluctuation in the patient’s condition, according to the company.