The four-year grant, which is part of the Foundation’s LEAPS (Linked Efforts to Accelerate Parkinson’s Solutions) initiative, was awarded to Alnylam, Mayo Clinic of Jacksonville, Florida, and the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center of Sunnyvale, California.
The LEAPS award will fund research focused on the further development of an RNAi therapeutic targeting alpha-synuclein that may play a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease. Continued research will look at whether reducing levels of alpha-synuclein in the brain can slow or halt disease progression. Alnylam and collaborators have designed and synthesized small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the molecules that mediate RNAi, that are specific to the alpha-synuclein gene.
John Maraganore, CEO of Alnylam, said: “We believe that RNAi therapeutics, due to their novel mechanism of action, may have a significant impact in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and address this neurodegenerative disorder in a fundamentally new way.”