Eight Million Awarded to UdeM Researchers to Advance Understanding of Parkinson's Disease

A team from the University of Montreal, led by Professor Michel Desjardins from the Faculty of Medicine, has been awarded a grant of eight million dollars from the American organization Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP). This funding aims to deepen understanding of the immune system’s role in the development of Parkinson’s disease, particularly its links to bacterial and viral infections.

ASAP, dedicated to advancing fundamental knowledge about Parkinson’s disease, awarded this grant through the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Researchers from the University of Montreal, in collaboration with colleagues from McGill University, will continue the work initiated in 2020 thanks to an earlier grant from ASAP.

The team includes Michel Desjardins, a full professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology; Louis-Éric Trudeau, a full professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology; Nathalie Labrecque, a full professor in the Department of Medicine; Janelle Drouin-Ouellet, an associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy; and Pierre Thibault, a full professor in the Department of Chemistry.

This competitive funding represents a significant step forward in Parkinson’s disease research, a neurodegenerative condition that affects millions of people worldwide. In Canada alone, over 100,000 individuals are living with this disease, a number projected to increase by 65% by 2031 due to population aging.

This content has been updated on 16 January 2025 at 10 h 09 min.