ProteoTech wins grant for Parkinson’s disease research

In collaboration with Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, ProteoTech scientists will utilize ProteoTech’s small molecule platform drug technology to develop new imaging agents that will allow doctors to use PET imaging to identify and determine the extent of alpha-synuclein accumulation in the living human brain.

Alpha-synuclein is a major protein identified in Lewy bodies in the Parkinson’s disease brain, and its accumulation in brain is believed to be important in the motor dysfunction observed in Parkinson’s patients. The one-and-a-half year project will be led by Alan Snow, chairman, president and chief scientific officer of ProteoTech, and Franz Hefti, chief scientific officer of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals.

ProteoTech is currently in its fourth year of a LEAPS award funded by The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research to develop a new small molecule targeting alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s brain.

Previously, ProteoTech’s Synuclere has been demonstrated to inhibit alpha-synuclein aggregation in the brains of genetically engineered mice that develop motor dysfunction, when alpha-synuclein deposits aggregate and accumulate in brain.