Welcome to the NINDS Parkinson's Disease Biomarkers Program (PDBP)
The ultimate goal for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) treatment is to develop disease-modifying treatments that slow, prevent or reverse the underlying disease process. Biomarkers of disease progression will dramatically accelerate PD treatment research because it will allow us to: 1) complete clinical trials for treatment discovery in a shorter timeframe; and 2) make sure that our treatments are actually impacting the biological causes of Parkinson's disease, not just the symptoms. To learn more about the PDBP and the accomplishments to date, please read the fifth edition of the PDBP Newsletter (PDBP Newsletter Vol 3, Issue 1). This will be a quarterly publication for PDBP participants and caregivers designed to update participants about the progress of the study as well as share participant experiences regarding PD clinical research.
More than 1436 participants have been enrolled in the PDBP, as of June 2016, which represents 98% of the targeted enrollment!
NINDS blog on the PDBP by Story Landis (find out more about this program)
The PDBP has enrolled and continues to enroll participants who fall into three main diagnostic categories:
- People with Parkinson's Disease
- People who do not have Parkinson's disease nor another neurological diagnosis, known as "controls"
- People with a Parkinson-like disorder (Parkinsonism) which is not Parkinson's disease (PD). Examples of parkinsonisms include: Multiple system atrophy (MSA); Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP); Corticobasal degeneration (CBD); Atypical parkinson's disease (APD); Essential tremor (ET).
We have seven clinical sites actively enrolling participants:
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH)
- John's Hopkins University (JHU)
- Penn State University (PSU)
- University of Alabama (UAB)
- University of Florida (UFL)
- University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW)
- University of Washington (in Washington State) (just starting to enroll)
