Researchers based at Australia’s Translational Research Institute (TRI) have received major funding from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD) treatments by targeting the gut microbiome. Image Credit: Translational Research Institute (TRI) Associate Professor Richard Gordon and his team from the QUT School of Biomedical Sciences were awarded two grants from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) totalling $4 million. Associate Professor Gordon said the research team will use a combination of human patient studies and disease models to identify new classes of therapeutics as treatments for PD.
The team will also develop engineered microbes as live biotherapeutics and test their potential to slow or stop Parkinson’s progression by altering the gut ecosystem and activating protective mechanisms. Researchers will leverage TRI facilities including the Clinical Research Facility (CRF) for patient recruitment and collecting samples, the Gnotobiotic Facility for the microbiome work and Biological Research Facilities for testing new therapeutics. Recruitment for the microbiome study will start around August and will be open to both people with PD and healthy volunteers.
The study will involve providing a routine blood sample at TRI’s CRF and a take-home microbiome kit which participants can mail back to the research team. The patient samples will provide the basis for our microbiome research program and the de.
