James Beck, PhD, on Identifying Genetic Variants of Parkinson Disease

“What we hope to do by our initiative is not only advanced the potential for precision medicine therapies but change the standard of care for those living with Parkinson's disease.”

The Parkinson’s Foundation is aiming to increase the genetics knowledge base of people with Parkinson disease (PD) as precision medicine and gene therapies grow in prominence and are starting to be explored and tested in more fields with the launce of PDGENEration (NCT04057794).

The Foundation believes genetic counseling and testing for people with PD needs to become part of the standard of care to enable future genetic medicine treatment or participation in clinical trials. Currently, the genetic status of many patients with PD remainsunknown since most have not been genetically tested. Participation in PDGENEration is available at-home or in-person at sites across the US to people with PD.

CGTLive spoke with James Beck, PhD, chief scientific officer and senior vice president, Parkinson’s Foundation, to learn more about the findings that PDGENEration has discovered. Neurologists seeking more information about PD GENEration can visit PDGENEration.com or email [email protected] questions about enrollment.

REFERENCE

Parkinson’s Foundation announces major expansion of PD GENErationstudy, increasing access to genetic testing and counseling across the U.S. News release. Parkinson’s Foundation. May 3, 2022. https://www.parkinson.org/about-us/press-release/Parkinsons-Foundation-expansion-PD-GENEration-study