The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research is a US non-profit organization founded in 2000 by Canadian-American actor

Michael J. Fox Michael Andrew Fox (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a Canadian and American actor and activist. Beginning his career as a child actor in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom ...

to find a cure for

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

Business model

The organization funds grants directly to scientists it assesses as having the best chance of finding a cure. It maintains closer control over and supervision of projects than is typical from other medical-research foundations.

Fundraising

In 2006 it was the "largest private funder of research" into Parkinson's, according to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. , it had raised $2 billion for Parkinson's research projects. According to ''Town and Country'', in 2022 the organization funded more Parkinson's research than the US government. According to ''

Fox Business Fox Business (officially known as Fox Business Network, or FBN) is an American conservative business news channel and website publication owned by the Fox News Media division of Fox Corporation. The channel broadcasts primarily from studios ...

'', it is the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's research in the world.

Work

In 2023, a

longitudinal study A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of observationa ...

funded by the organization, the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative, released results in ''

Lancet Neurology ''Lancet Neurology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 2002 by Elsevier BV. Abstracting and indexing ''Lancet Neurology'' is abstracted and indexed the following bibliographic databases: *Science Citation Index Expand ...

'' showing Parkinson's can be detected by the presence of a biomarker protein, abnormal

alpha-synuclein Alpha-synuclein (aSyn) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SNCA'' gene. It is a neuronal protein involved in the regulation of synaptic vesicle trafficking and the release of neurotransmitters. Alpha-synuclein is abundant in the brai ...

. The biomarker can be detected before the onset of symptoms. The organization hosts the Fox Trial Finder, a website for presenting

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

s in Parkinson's disease research.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Michael J. Fox Foundation, The Biomedical research foundations Medical and health foundations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in New York City Organizations established in 2000 Parkinson's disease organizations Michael J. Fox