Special opportunities
The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center demonstrates remarkable tenacity, focus and momentum in its drive to accelerate the discovery and delivery of effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. To be successful we must constantly monitor, improve and refocus existing programs, and identify and establish new initiatives. Of course, we also must continue to identify new sources of funding from visionary philanthropists, foundations and other supporters.
The Center’s immediate funding priorities include the following:
Drug discovery
Effective drug discovery is no longer the sole purview of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. We have created the largest not-for-profit drug discovery program dedicated to neurodegenerative disease, our Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration. We know this approach is working, with several drug discovery compounds now at the animal testing phase.
However, now is the time to increase the level of drug discovery activity at our drug discovery laboratory. By increasing the volume of early stage drug discovery projects, we also will increase the opportunities to discover effective new treatments for these devastating diseases.
As such, we are actively seeking financial support to fund disease-specific drug discovery programs. For example, additional support is required to fund the new Collaborative ALS Drug Discovery Initiative (For program description, click here), as well as for a comparable program dedicated to MS drug discovery. Similarly, there are already promising compounds under development for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease – all of which require additional support to help further advance the projects.
Pathways to MS Drug Discovery
We have known for decades that children of MS patients are at an increased risk of developing the disease. This tells us that there must be a heritable, genetic risk of developing MS. With the support of the UK Welcome Trust and the National MS Society, we have expanded the International MS Genetics Consortium to pinpoint all of the genes presumed to be involved with MS.
An important next step is to assess the impact of MS-risk genes on the immune system and their specific role in MS. This so-called “cell proofing” is an important step toward the development of new treatments for MS and leads directly to targeted drug discovery. As such, we are actively seeking financial support to fund this research. It has the capacity to significantly improve the MS drug discovery landscape.
New program to discover biomarkers
Like the discovery of cholesterol as a "biomarker" for heart disease, the discovery of biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases would represent a major advance. The availability of accurate biomarkers would reduce the duration and cost of clinical trials — key to developing new therapies.
The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center program has already established a major biomarkers discovery program, dedicated to the discovery and validation of biomarkers for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. (For program description, click here) To date, visionary philanthropists have provided crucial support for the Program’s launch. We are seeking additional financial support from organizations and individuals who share our passion to accelerate the discovery of new treatments for these diseases!
Fellowships and Attracting Excellence
It takes talented, high trained and motivated individuals to drive forward important discoveries. The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center welcomes the opportunity to identify young and energetic scientists with unusual advancement potential and encourage them to focus their careers on understanding and solving neurodegenerative diseases. Over the years, the Center has invested over $10 million in the best and brightest investigators of tomorrow. As such, we are actively seeking financial commitments to fund additional fellowship opportunities for our most brilliant junior investigators!
Neurodegenerative diseases present a huge challenge. A critical mass is required to meet this challenge. But size alone isn't enough. We encourage and reward communication and cooperation. We eliminate duplication and promote useful collaboration. We believe that this synergistic approach is much more effective than a series of individual and isolated efforts. In translational research, the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.