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Poul Henning Jensen receives DKK 20 million in funding from the Lundbeck Foundation's Collaborative Projects programme.

With this research collaboration, Professor Poul Henning Jensen from Dandrite at Aarhus University and partners will make a detailed mapping of the early changes that occur in neurons when the disease processes associated with Parkinson's disease slowly accumulate. Preliminary data strongly suggest that such changes can be inhibited – and if proven correct, it raises hopes for future disease-modifying treatments.

The diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is based on significant motor symptoms such as trembling, impaired movement and stiffness. This has been attributed to the death of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. However, the disease often starts much earlier with diffuse symptoms such as depression, sleep disturbances and constipation. Symptoms that are not associated with loss of neurons but are more likely the result of dysfunction of neurons.

Now – with this new collaborative project – researchers are changing the perspective of the last 20 years of research from focusing on the death of neurons to the progressive dysfunctions of neurons.

Poul Henning Jensen and the two collaborators together form a strong team covering most of the defining molecular mechanisms for the functional decline of brains affected by Parkinson's disease.

Co-applicants and collaborators on the project:

• Assistant Professor, Marijn Kuijpers, Radboud University, The Netherlands
• Professor Fulvio Reggiori, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark

 

 

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The other Collaborative Projects grant recipients - 2022: