Partnership for Parkinson's disease research: patient-researcher-clinician-sponsor

Parkinson's disease (PD) appears to arise from the interaction of three events-an individual's inherited genetic susceptibility, their subsequent environmental exposures, and their age. We clearly need to intensify efforts to understand the environmental triggers of PD, the importance of the timing of exposure to these triggers, and the interplay between these exposures and a persons underlying genetic constitution and susceptibilities. This knowledge, once generated, will lead to better detection of the earliest stages of PD, to improved therapeutics, and most importantly, to viable prevention strategies so that people need not suffer from environmentally-caused PD. Many promising lines of investigation are already supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and the National Institute of Aging (NIA) and other public and private organizations. In order to accelerate the pace of progress in this field, the NIEHS is developing a Consortium Centers Program that will provide a formal mechanism for "cross-talk" between PD clinicians, basic research scientists, and patient advocates. The Consortium will seek to identify and support novel approaches and research ventures that might not otherwise be pursued by scientists working in isolation. The NIEHS will also continue to explore ways to promote more mechanism-based research to understand putative environmental triggers for PD in concert with defined genetic susceptibilities.