Cure Parkinson’s annually coordinates the International Linked Clinical Trials (iLCT) meeting to rank and prioritise therapies that may have the potential to modify the course of Parkinson’s progression. In addition to this primary task, the iLCT committee receives updates of ongoing studies and clinical trial-related topics.
At this meeting in September Diane Stephenson, Director of the “Critical path for Parkinson’s” project gave an overview of this programme of research and how it could be utilised in clinical trials for Parkinson’s.
Professor Chris Coffey from the University of Iowa presented on clinical trial design along with interesting statistics associated with this.
Dr Emma Lane of Cardiff University presented her research that is focused on the patient experience in clinical trials. Dr Lane is interviewing participants of Parkinson’s clinical trials and their family members to determine a more in-depth understanding of the challenges involved with taking part; Cure Parkinson’s is funding elements of Dr Lane’s research in this area.
Cure Parkinson’s is also delighted to announce that Dr Leah Mursaleen is taking on a newly developed role in the organisation that will focus on accelerating iLCT-related pipeline research. Every year following this important annual meeting there are candidate iLCT therapies that are deemed premature by the iLCT committee, requiring more research before they can be moved to clinical trial testing. Dr Mursaleen will proactively facilitate this additional research to provide stronger justification for the clinical testing of these therapies; this new role will, it is hoped, speed up the process of finding potentially curative treatments for Parkinson’s.
Related content
The annual Rallying to the Challenge meeting which is designed for and by people with Parkinson’s, advocates and care partners explores how the Parkinson’s community can impact and accelerate research; it runs in conjunction with the iLCT meeting.
Each year the meeting takes an aspect of Parkinson’s research and discusses how people living with the condition can support and influence work in this area. This year’s theme was: ‘Modifying Progression — From Molecules to Trials’ and mirrored the science symposium Grand Challenges in Parkinson’s Disease at Van Andel Institute, U.S.
Re-watch presentations from this year’s Rallying to the Challenge meeting.