NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Caprion said today it has received a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to identify protein biomarkers associated with Parkinson's.
The Montreal-based firm said it will use the funding to identify and validate biomarkers that could be used for early detection and diagnosis, monitor disease progression, and assess the effectiveness of experimental therapies.
The company will use its CNS ProteoCarta assay panel of 142 cerebrospinal fluid proteins that have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases. It also will add 50 proteins previously associated with Parkinson's disease to its multiple reaction monitoring assay, which will be used to analyze CSF from Parkinson's patients and control subjects.
"We believe that our approach to building highly multiplexed protein assays is well matched to the need for triaging the many candidate biomarkers identified in the literature but not yet validated. Analyzing approximately 200 relevant proteins in the same assay will also accelerate that process and conserve rare test samples," Daniel Chelsky, Caprion's chief scientific officer and principal investigator on the project, said in a statement.
"A Parkinson's biomarker would be a game changer for drug development in our field," added Catherine Kopil, MJFF's associate director of research programs.
Caprion declined to disclose the dollar amount of the award.