MapLight Therapeutics receives additional funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
The $1.75M award builds on a $5.5M grant from MJFF announced earlier this month. MapLight also received an $8.1M award from MJFF in 2020.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Aug. 25, 2021 – MapLight Therapeutics announced a $1.75M million grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to develop new therapies for the treatment of this debilitating disease. The project aims to identify non-dopaminergic drug combinations that will lower patients’ risk of developing L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) and enable the treatment of symptoms not traditionally addressed by dopamine replacement therapy, such as altered posture and balance.
“This additional funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation supports exciting new work using our proprietary platform to discover novel therapeutic combinations for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease,” said Anatol Kreitzer, Ph.D., Chief Discovery Officer at MapLight. “We are honored to partner with an organization that shares our vision of innovation for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.”
L-DOPA, a dopamine replacement therapy, is the most prescribed therapeutic for providing Parkinson’s patients relief from motor symptoms, such as tremor and slow movement. However, long-term use and use in patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease can cause an imbalance of the neural pathways that activate and inhibit movement, leading to dyskinesia — involuntary movements that can be as debilitating as the disease itself.
The funded project, “Preclinical validation of combination therapies for Parkinson’s disease,” explores the potential that selective pharmacological targeting of dysregulated brain circuits can treat disease symptoms that have so far proven intractable.
About MapLight Therapeutics
MapLight Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops novel therapeutics for patients with disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). MapLight’s mission is to address the critical unmet medical needs of these patients by developing innovative, targeted therapies to treat the defining clinical manifestations of their disease. The company’s circuit-based approach and proprietary discovery platform is designed to bring more effective and safer treatments to these patients by rationally developing therapies that target defective brain circuits. The company’s platform, which includes STARmap (three-dimensional spatial transcriptomics) and optogenetics, enables the identification of circuit-specific targets and validation that target modulation ameliorates disease.. Learn more at www.maplightrx.com.
Media Contact for MapLight Therapeutics
Lauren Davis
Alkali Marketing
512-751-2946
