Sengenics, the Functional Proteomics Company, has been awarded a prestigious research grant by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to identify novel autoantibody signatures related to non-motor symptoms in individuals with high risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD) from the Parkinson’s Associated Risk Study (PARS). The objective of the study will be to leverage KREX-based Immunome protein arrays to identify autoantibodies that may have potential as diagnostic or mechanistic biomarkers and, furthermore, to help in understanding the aetiology of PD in terms of pathogenesis and disease progression. Sengenics will be the first external partner in the world to gain access to the PARS cohort.

PARS is a collaboration between the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders and the University of Pennsylvania to examine new strategies to evaluate individuals for early signs of PD or other neurodegenerative disorders. PARS was designed to develop a battery of tests that can be used to reliably predict an individual’s risk of developing PD.

“There is an increasing body of evidence that autoantibodies could play an important role in impairment of neuronal function. We have awarded this grant to Sengenics as their KREX platform enables high-throughput determination of autoantibodies to thousands of correctly folded autoantigens that may be implicated in the progression and pathogenesis of PD,” said Nicole Polinski, PhD, MJFF Senior Associate Director of Research Programs.

Professor Jonathan Blackburn, Sengenics CSO said, “The PARS cohort offers an exceptional opportunity to discover if autoantibodies can be used to distinguish between high-risk/hyposmic individuals with no neurological disease and those with pre-Parkinsonian syndrome. We are delighted to have been awarded this prestigious Michael J. Fox Foundation research grant and look forward to contributing to the Foundation’s goals towards improving the accuracy of pre-symptomatic diagnosis and discovering potential drug targets for Parkinson’s.”

About Sengenics

Sengenics is a Functional Proteomics company that leverages its patented KREX technology to discover autoantibody biomarker signatures for prediction of drug response and severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs). KREX can also be used to identify autoantibody biomarkers to diagnose cancer, autoimmune, neurodegenerative or infectious diseases with higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional diagnostic tests. Some autoantibodies that are identified as diagnostic biomarkers may be protective and have potential in themselves as therapeutic biomolecules.

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