Multi-Institutional Team Secures $9M Grant to Study Immune Aging in Parkinson's Disease

A multi-institutional research team led by Indiana University School of Medicine scientists has been awarded a $9 million grant to investigate how immune cell aging impacts Parkinson's disease risk and progression. The study will focus on immune-cell exhaustion—a state where aging immune networks lose functional capacity—and its role in triggering or accelerating neurodegeneration.

The project is funded through a grant awarded by Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF). The team has been selected to join the Collaborative Research Network (CRN), an international, multidisciplinary network working to address high-priority research questions about Parkinson's disease.

Researchers aim to mirror the cancer field's precision medicine model, tracking distinct immune profiles to tailor therapies to an individual's unique biological baseline. By mapping immune system changes, the project aims to uncover precise biomarkers and pioneer customized immunotherapies to intercept neurodegeneration early. The team will also explore whether lifestyle and environmental factors play a role in developing the disease.

Age is the greatest risk factor for Parkinson's disease. While immune-cell exhaustion occurs naturally as individuals age, its direct relation to Parkinson's disease remains underexplored. The study will investigate immune-cell exhaustion in idiopathic and familial forms of Parkinson's cases.

Parkinson's disease affects more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. and incurred an annual economic burden of $82 billion in healthcare, disability, productivity, and caregiving costs in 2024 alone.

The leadership team includes researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine, Columbia University, Thomas Jefferson University, and Tulane University. "Parkinson's disease is complex enough that no single institution can answer these questions alone," said a member of the leadership team. "This collaboration brings together complementary expertise in immunology, neuroscience, biostatistics and clinical care in a way that genuinely accelerates discovery."

The CRN is expanding to map the biological blueprint of Parkinson's disease and build a standardized toolkit of global research resources. This next phase focuses on understanding the heterogeneity of Parkinson's disease, why it varies across individuals, and advancing discoveries toward more precise diagnostics and future therapies. Managed by an internal biostatistics data core, the team will generate high-quality, standardized resources for the global research community to reduce technical hurdles in drug development.

Meanwhile, broader advances in neurological biomarker research are enabling precision medicine across neurodegenerative disorders. Protein biomarkers are advancing understanding, improving diagnosis, and guiding treatment for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. Cutting-edge proteomics technologies have enabled major advances in identifying and utilizing biomarkers to diagnose and treat neurological disorders.

In Alzheimer's disease, molecular subtyping enabled by platforms such as the Olink Explore HT panel has begun to reveal biologically meaningful subgroups, which may help explain clinical variability and guide more targeted therapeutic strategies. The 2024 revised criteria has expanded fluid biomarkers for diagnosis and staging of AD, including plasma p-tau217 and hybrid ratios such as p-tau181/Aβ42. For multiple sclerosis, multiplex protein panels are being developed to capture the multifaceted nature of disease activity and tissue damage, supporting both pathophysiological understanding and early diagnosis.

These advances require collaborations and partnerships among academics, industry, and clinicians to turn discoveries into therapeutic applications, with future directions of proteomics and multi-omics driving precision medicine in neurological disease studies.