Neuroscientist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center

Receives Grant from Michael J. Fox Foundation

The Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded a researcher from Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago a grant to study whether gene therapy can be used to treat neurological diseases, including Parkinson's Disease.

The Foundation is named for actor Michael J. Fox and is established to support research into the treatment and cure for Parkinson's. The grant is one of 15 international awards totaling $1.5 million dollars given out by the Fox Foundation as part of its initial round of awards.

Dr. Marina Emborg is a neurobiologist at the Research Center for Brain Repair in the department of Neurological Sciences at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. The Research Center for Brain Repair is headed by Dr. Jeffrey Kordower, who, along with Emborg and others, published a study in the journal Science last October concerning the successful use of gene therapy to protect against the behavioral and anatomical changes that occur in the brains of primates with Parkinson's disease. "This initial round of research grant funding represents an exciting first-step in our Foundation's active involvement in the search for a cure," said Michael J. Fox. "The overwhelming number of proposals that were submitted affirm our belief that promising research opportunities exist, merely awaiting much-deserved funding."

Emborg's grant will allow her to study the lentiviral delivery of neublastin (NeuB) to MPTP-treated monkeys. The research builds on the study Kordower published last fall.

"We were able to show, in animals, that glial derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) can be used to protect dopamine function in the brain," she said. "We know that NeuB is a recently identified compound of the GDNF family that seems to be at least as potent as GDNF." Emborg said the two phases of the project will determine if the delivery of NeuB by lentiviral vectors will be an effective protective agent in monkeys with early PD and also, if NeuB can rescue dopaminergic function in animals modeling advanced PD.

"If these experiments are successful, they may provide an innovative alternative strategy to prevent the progression of the Parkinson's and restore dopamine generating function in parkinsonian patients," she said.

Emborg said that her interest in finding a cure for PD dates back to her volunteer work at a drug addiction center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"I learned about the "frozen addicts" from California who were being treated at a clinic who had injected themselves with a bad batch of synthetic heroin contaminated with the neurotoxin MPTP," she said. "The addicts became parkinsonian overnight, and this deepened my interest in the basis of neurodegeneration and on finding a way to repair brain damage."

Emborg's research has been extensively published in peer-reviewed journals. Her contributions have been recognized by colleagues in the National Institutes of Health and private foundations' awards. Her research has involved studies of aging, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease.

Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center includes the 809-bed Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital; 154-bed Johnston R. Bowman Health Center for the Elderly; Rush University (Rush Medical College, College of Nursing, College of Health Sciences and Graduate College); and seven Rush Institutes providing diagnosis, treatment and research into leading health problems. The medical center is the tertiary hub of the Rush System for Health, a comprehensive healthcare system capable of serving about two million people through its outpatient facilities and five member hospitals.