Groundbreaking project seeks to illuminate the complexities of Parkinson's

Launching today, Landmark is a groundbreaking three-year research programme that aims to understand Parkinson’s in unprecedented detail. The project brings together Parkinson’s UK, Imperial College London, GSK, Novartis, Roche and UCB for the first time, and has been made possible by a founding gift of £4 million from the Gatsby charitable foundation. 

Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world and affects around 153,000 people in the UK. The condition is caused by a lack of dopamine in the brain and there are more than 40 symptoms, from tremor and pain to anxiety. 

Despite decades of research, treatments that can stop, reverse or prevent Parkinson’s remain out of reach. Although inroads have been made in understanding the causes of the condition, a complete picture of how and why people develop Parkinson’s still eludes experts. 

The Landmark project will apply a technique called snRNAseq (single nucleusRibonucleic Acid sequencing) to quantify hundreds of tissue samples from the Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank, in order to create a map of gene expression in Parkinson’s across different cell types.   

They will also analyze changes in:

• How gene expression is managed by cells (epigenetics) 
• How the changes in gene expression alter which proteins are present inside these cells (proteomics) 
• How the changes in gene expression alter which smaller molecules are present (metabolomics)
•  How mutations, in individual patients, affect gene expression (genetics)

This powerful ‘multi-omic’ approach will provide unprecedented detail of exactly what is happening inside cells affected in the condition, enabling researchers to pinpoint:

• Causes of Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s dementia
• Why some brain cells are more vulnerable to Parkinson’s than others
• Potential targets for developing new treatments
• New ways to measure the progression of the condition (“biomarkers”), which are essential for clinical trials
• Which genes or mutations in our body increase our risk of developing Parkinson’s

With four major pharmaceutical companies on board and discussions taking place with other potential partners, the Landmark team is uniquely-placed to drive forward this pioneering programme at pace. With each company contributing towards the costs of the scientific work, they will receive early insights into all discoveries made that can inform their development of new therapies for Parkinson’s. 

The new insights gained will also feed directly into the Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech - the drug development arm of Parkinson’s UK, in partnership with the Parkinson’s Foundation - to power the creation of new treatments for the community. Ultimately, however, the unique datasets will be made freely and openly available to the global research community.

The Landmark project is a highlight of my career. I set up the brain bank 22 years ago because I knew that one day techniques like single cell type RNAseq gene expression would be possible and allow us to unlock the secrets held in the brains of people with Parkinson’s. 

We are delighted to be bringing together charities, academia and pharmaceutical partners for the first time on this project. Landmark will significantly strengthen our ability to develop potential new treatments and a cure for the world’s fastest growing neurological condition. To see it launch and know of the potential it has to ultimately change the lives of people living with Parkinson’s is incredible.”

Professor David Dexter, Director of Research, Parkinson’s UK

Michael Johnson, Professor of Neurology and Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London and the lead investigator for Landmark, says: “The Landmark project will produce state-of-the-art datasets that will enable scientists to fully understand the biological ways in which Parkinson’s takes hold and progresses in the brain. But alongside that, our overarching aim is to find new potential drugs that can help us tackle the condition. By identifying the predictive biomarkers involved in Parkinson’s, we hope to speed up the eventual journey of these drugs to patients. I’m honoured to be the academic lead for this bold partnership."