The Fox Focus Fall/Winter 2015

THE FOX MARK SELIGER FOCUS ON PARKINSON’S FALL/WINTER 2015 NEWSLETTER A FUTURE WITHOUT PARKINSON’S DISEASE The Foundation shares in film-focused fun, but with a serious twist. by cheryl blowers and holly teichholtz The nation is abuzz with excitement about “Marty McFly Day” — October 21, 2015, the date on which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd) arrive to the future in the second installment of the iconic Back to the Future trilogy. The films accurately predicted some elements of life in 2015, though fully functional hoverboards and robot servers in restaurants remain the stuff of science fiction. Within the Parkinson’s disease (PD) community, the “future” world of 2015 holds immense promise for patients and their families. Fueled by genetic discoveries and powered by emerging technologies that amplify the patient voice in research, today’s PD drug development pipeline is more robust than at any other time in history. Back in 2012, MJFF asked a few members of our Executive Scientific Advisory Board to predict the state of PD research in 2015. Several of their predictions have become reality — including Matt Farrer, PhD’s optimism for progress to better integrate genetic discoveries into a big-picture understanding of how Parkinson’s arises (the genetics cohort of the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative launched in 2014) and Irene Hegeman Richard, MD’s hope that more people would take part in research (thousands have registered with Fox Trial Finder and Fox Insight since then). continued on page 16 › T U R N TO PAGE 14 for adv ice o a PD d n sharing iagn at wor osis k. IN THIS ISSUE 2 Patients Champion Online Research Parkinson’s patients are advancing research through the latest technology and MJFF’s virtual clinical study. 3 The Sherer Report MJFF CEO Todd Sherer, PhD, on the promise of new treatments advancing in clinical trials 7 Research News Briefs Progress in slowing disease progression, tracking PD’s effects on the brain and addressing depression 18 Tour de Fox: 14,000 Miles and Nearly $2 Million The Parkinson’s community and Team Fox unite for a three-month journey to help speed a cure.