University of Arizona

City:

Amount: $100000

Award Date: 2025

Duration: 18 months

Program Area: Bioscience

Translational Seed Grant: Parkinson’s disease is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease and is a growing source of disability and mortality. The therapy developed by this team aims to regenerate affected areas of the brain and treat the underlying cause of PD, which impacts about 1 million Americans. The disease is characterized by progressive loss of motor control but also affects multiple neural systems including sleep, sense of smell, taste, and cognition. The use of allopregnanolone (Allo; a naturally occurring molecule) for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s is being licensed from the University of Arizona. Allo is a neurosteroid, used here because it causes a fast increase of human neural stem cells, or cells that can self-renew and create more cells in the central nervous system.