Benjamin Stecher's Blog

Benjamin Stecher joined the JPD blog team and is now contributing unique content to this section aimed at the PD research and patient communities. If you have any comments, please post beneath the posts, or contact us at: market@iospress.nl. Benjamin also authors a blog section on this site called Tomorrow Edition Extracts.

 

 

The Futile Hunt for Disease Modifying Therapies

Disease-modification as a goal of clinical trials is problematic not only because "modification" is an amorphous term, but there is disagreement over the term "disease" itself as we lack a universally accepted definition of Parkinson's disease. Prof. Karl Kieburtz argues that moving to better defined end points would hasten the delivery of better therapeutics for PD. Read more here

Last comment on by Timothy Welborn...

Super Precision Medicine

Precision therapies are on the horizon, but are they precise enough? The era of precision medicine for Parkinson's disease is fast approaching, but the reality may be that to truly deliver therapies that can help people live better lives we may need to leapfrog the era of precision medicine and jump straight to therapies that are even more precise, aka "super" precision medicine therapies. Read more here

The GBA-PD Trials: Expert Survey

The first generation of clinical trials targeting specific genetic subtypes of the Parkinson's population are underway for carriers of GBA and LRRK2 mutations. These trials are among the first attempts to apply principles of precision medicine to a neurodegenerative disease. To gain some clarity, I discussed the current state of GBA-PD research with a range of experts. To read the outcome of this survey, click here

Putting it all Together: Reflections from Fifty Interviews with World Leading Parkinson’s and Biomedical Experts

For the past six months, I have been recording and transcribing interviews with a wide variety of Parkinson’s specialists and biomedical researchers. It has been an incredibly enlightening experience that has given me insights into my own journey with Parkinson’s disease, as well as the future of biomedical science. To read my biggest takeaways so far, as well as a selection of meaningful quotes from these experts, click here

Last comment on by Bonnie Chismar,