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The Michael J. Fox Foundation
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Funds and accelerates Parkinson's disease research
The Michael J. Fox Foundation
Work Here?
Funds and accelerates Parkinson's disease research
Overview
What does the Michael J. Fox Foundation do? It funds Parkinson's disease research with a focus on speed and scale, to move science toward a cure and better treatments. How does its work operate? It provides grants and resources to scientists, supports collaborations, and helps advance therapies from discovery to clinical testing, so new drugs and treatments reach patients sooner. How is it different from others? It concentrates only on Parkinson's research, targets aggressive funding and practical translation of findings into therapies, and works across the research community to accelerate progress. What is its goal? To find a cure for Parkinson's disease and to ensure improved therapies are available for people living with it today.
About The Michael J. Fox Foundation
Industries
Social Impact
Education
Healthcare
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
2000
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Thermo Fisher finished proteomics on 5,500 PPMI samples on August 11, 2026.
- MJFF and ADDF opened a $5 million biomarker partnership on July 13, 2026.
- September 2 and 15, 2026 campaigns with Harrison Ford and Lasker publicity expanded donor visibility.
What critics are saying
- Biogen and Denali’s BIIB122 failed Phase 2 in May 2026, shrinking MJFF’s LRRK2 pathway.
- Bial’s BIA 28-6156 failed in June 2026, exposing MJFF-funded biology to repeat dead ends.
- If the $2.5 billion campaign stalls, 2027 funding evaporates and PPMI’s momentum slows.
What makes The Michael J. Fox Foundation unique
- MJFF’s PPMI built the largest open Parkinson’s biomarker dataset, powering precision medicine globally.
- On September 17, 2026, MJFF launched a $2.5 billion campaign, already at $1.75 billion.
- Its grantmaking now pairs scientific funding with commercialization clawbacks, aligning incentives across 40 therapies.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Flexible Spending Accounts
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
Paid Vacation
Paid Sick Leave
Hybrid Work Options
Flexible Work Hours
Company News
AstronauTx has received research funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research and Parkinson's UK to investigate sleep-based treatments for Parkinson's disease. The biotechnology company, which develops therapeutics for neurological disorders by improving sleep architecture, will use the grants to explore whether enhancing restorative sleep mechanisms can reduce pathological protein accumulation linked to Parkinson's. The Michael J. Fox Foundation grant will support research into a potential disease-modifying treatment targeting prodromal Parkinson's disease, particularly REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder, an early indicator of the condition. Meanwhile, Parkinson's UK is funding collaborative research with University College London to examine whether increasing slow-wave sleep can enhance the brain's natural waste-clearance pathways. AstronauTx is preparing its lead programme for clinical development in 2027.
AstronauTx awarded research funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson's UK to explore sleep-based approaches for Parkinson's disease. September 22, 2026 03:00 ET | Source: AstronauTx * MJFF grant will support development of a potential disease-modifying treatment for prodromal Parkinson's disease by targeting restorative sleep mechanisms * Parkinson's UK-funded research with University College London (UCL) will further explore the link between enhanced slow-wave sleep and glymphatic flow, the brain's natural waste-clearance mechanism LONDON, Sept. 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - AstronauTx Ltd ("AstronauTx"), a biotechnology company developing novel therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders by improving sleep architecture, today announces that it has received funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) and that Parkinson's UK is funding an additional complementary research effort in collaboration with University College London (UCL). The MJFF-funded project, titled 'Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Modulation as a Disease-Modifying Treatment for Prodromal Synucleinopathies', will explore whether enhancing restorative sleep mechanisms using novel compounds developed by AstronauTx can reduce the accumulation of pathological proteins linked to Parkinson's disease. In particular, REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD) is a recognised early indicator of Parkinson's disease, and AstronauTx aims to generate data supporting the development of one of its compounds as a potential disease-modifying treatment for this prodromal stage of Parkinson's disease, where there may be a significant opportunity to influence disease progression. The MJFF grant was awarded through the Foundation's Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Pipeline Program, which supports preclinical and translational research aimed at evaluating promising therapeutic approaches and advancing them toward clinical development. "Restorative sleep mechanisms are an emerging area of interest for therapeutic development in Parkinson's disease, with the potential to offer new opportunities to intervene earlier in the disease process," said Shalini Padmanabhan, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Translational Research at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. "The studies supported through this award will generate important preclinical evidence to evaluate this therapeutic approach and help determine its potential to advance toward clinical development." In parallel, Parkinson's UK is funding a complementary project with UCL, led by Ian Harrison and supported by AstronauTx, to investigate whether increasing slow-wave sleep can enhance the brain's natural waste-clearance pathways. The Parkinson's UK-funded study, titled 'Measuring the Effects of Increasing Slow-Wave Sleep Using a Novel Mechanism on Glymphatic Transport of Alpha-Synuclein in a Parkinson's Disease Mouse Model', will evaluate whether a novel sleep-enhancing compound that increases slow-wave activity and enhances glymphatic flow results in the removal of the neurotoxic protein alpha-synuclein from the brain. Jane Rhodes, Chief Executive Officer of AstronauTx, commented: "We are grateful for the support from The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson's UK as we investigate the relationship between restorative sleep mechanisms and Parkinson's disease and evaluate the therapeutic potential of these approaches. By targeting the mechanisms that regulate restorative sleep, we aim to unlock a completely new approach to treating Parkinson's disease and other neurological diseases at their earliest stages, and we believe this grant-funded work has the potential to directly support the development of new disease-modifying approaches for patients." Together, these research programmes will provide insights into the relationship between sleep biology and Parkinson's disease, supporting AstronauTx's broader mission to develop therapeutics targeting sleep architecture to treat neurological disease. Alongside these grant-funded Parkinson's disease research programmes, the Company is preparing its lead programme for clinical development in 2027, further advancing its pipeline of first-in-class therapies targeting sleep architecture as a novel treatment approach for Alzheimer's disease and related neurological conditions. About AstronauTx Ltd AstronauTx is targeting sleep architecture as a therapeutic approach to treat neurological disease. Our thesis is that changes in sleep architecture underpin disease and that sleep is a modifiable risk factor for chronic neurodegeneration. By improving slow-wave sleep quality, we aim to slow cognitive decline associated with aging and dementia. Our approach is grounded in a combination of well-defined, quantifiable biological endpoints, such as EEG-based sleep architecture metrics and measurable improvements in cognitive function and glymphatic flow. Founded by SV Health's Dementia Discovery Fund, AstronauTx completed a £48 million/$61 million Series A financing in October 2023, led by the Novartis Venture Fund, with participation from SV's Dementia Discovery Fund, MPM BioImpact, Brandon Capital, EQT Life Sciences and Bristol Myers Squibb. For more information, visit our website.
Michael J. Fox and Harrison Ford team up with one message: 'keep showing up. Published: Sep 03, 2026 07:15 PM EDT Michael J. Fox and Harrison Ford are teaming up again - this time off-screen - for a new public service video aimed at helping people support a friend or loved one diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The video, titled "So... Your Friend Has Parkinson's," was released Sept. 2 by The Michael J. Fox Foundation in partnership with Maximum Effort, the entertainment company founded by foundation board member Ryan Reynolds. In it, Fox offers Ford - playfully cast as the "friend" learning the ropes - a simple set of guidelines for how to show up for someone facing the disease. "People worry so much about saying the wrong thing that they stop saying anything," Fox says in the video. By the end, Ford repeats the advice back: "Don't make it weird. Start simple. Help, don't fix. Keep showing up." Fox then jokingly declares Ford "officially qualified to be a friend." The pairing builds on the real-life bond the two actors formed filming Apple TV+'s "Shrinking," where Ford plays a therapist living with Parkinson's and Fox guest stars as a fellow patient who becomes his mentor and friend. Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991 at age 29, has spent over two decades turning his own diagnosis into a platform for hope, raising billions of dollars for research through his foundation. At its heart, the video's message reflects a truth worth remembering far beyond Parkinson's: love isn't complicated, and presence matters more than perfect words. Sometimes the most faithful thing a person can do for someone hurting is simply not leave.
FDA endorses alpha-synuclein biomarker for Parkinson's clinical trials. Critical Path Institute(R)(C-Path) today announced the publication of "Regulatory endorsement for the application of alpha-synuclein seed amplification assay (αSyn-SAA) as a susceptibility and risk biomarker for clinical trials targeting synucleinopathies" in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease, marking a significant milestone for its Critical Path for Parkinson's consortium. Published findings detail scientific, regulatory, and collaborative efforts culminating in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) biomarker Letter of Support for this work. This consensus publication demonstrates how cross-sector collaboration among patients, academic investigators, regulators, industry partners, and nonprofit organizations accelerates biomarker development and regulatory endorsement. This biomarker initiative was enabled by C-Path's long-standing partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) for Parkinson's Research. Consensus and data-driven strategies represent a clear model for advancing future biomarkers, improving clinical trial efficiency, and supporting the development of therapies for Parkinson's disease with a focus on early intervention. "Building on more than a decade of collaborative regulatory science at Critical Path for Parkinson's, we are dedicated to pushing forward with new biomarker milestones for neurodegenerative diseases," said Diane Stephenson, Ph.D., Vice President of Neurology and Executive Director of Critical Path for Parkinson's. "Powered by rigorous cross-sector partnership, αSyn-SAA enables greater precision in identifying trial participants to ultimately accelerate our path toward effective treatments focused on the underlying biology of disease." The FDA Letter of Support stems from significant evidence collected as part of MJFF's flagship Parkinson's Precision Medicine Initiative (PPMI), a flagship observational study that first reported the αSyn-SAA biomarker results in April 2023. The αSyn-SAA, for the first time, provides a way to detect the earliest biological signs of Parkinson's in living people. This could enable earlier testing of new treatments, when there may be the greatest opportunity to delay or prevent disease onset and progression. "This milestone reflects the power of collaboration, open science, and the unwavering commitment of the Parkinson's community led by C-Path and multiple stakeholders," said Kevin Kwok, a member of both the C-Path's Parkinson's patient advisory council and MJFF Patient Council, and a former PPMI Community Advisory Board member. "The letter of support for the α-synuclein seeding assay as a susceptibility and risk biomarker brings News Medical closer to biological staging and a future of precision medicine, where people at risk can be identified and treated earlier. Biochemical Assays for Efficient Hit Prioritization After Screening eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download the latest edition Most importantly, this achievement would not have been possible without the thousands of research participants who generously donated their cerebrospinal fluid and participated in clinical studies. Their extraordinary contributions are advancing science today and creating hope for future generations affected by Parkinson's disease." Appearing in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease, the manuscript arrives more than a decade after the same journal published the original Parkinson's consortium roadmap upon its launch in 2015. Today's updated roadmap demonstrates how a collaborative vision achieved meaningful regulatory progress, culminating in the FDA Letter of Support for αSyn-SAA. Together, the 2015 and 2026 publications chart a decade of advancements, spanning from establishing a collaborative framework for regulatory science to achieving a significant biomarker milestone for Parkinson's disease. Sustained collaboration consistently proves valuable in driving development of new therapies. Journal reference: Be the first to rate this article
Thermo Fisher Scientific collaborates with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to advance proteomics-enabled Parkinson's Precision Medicine. August 11, 2026 BCBN news, syndication comments off on thermo Fisher Scientific collaborates with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to advance proteomics-enabled Parkinson's Precision Medicine. WALTHAM, Mass.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced the completion of Olink Explore HT proteomic analysis of approximately 5,500 research samples from The Michael J. Fox Foundation's (MJFF) landmark study, the Parkinson's Precision Medicine Initiative (PPMI). The resulting data are now in PPMI's data repository, where they are available to the global research community. The project creates a large-scale proteomics resource designe Click here to view original post
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About The Michael J. Fox Foundation
Industries
Social Impact
Education
Healthcare
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
New York City, New York
Founded
2000
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is Hiring for 5 Jobs on Simplify!
Find jobs on Simplify and start your career today