The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s (ADDF) Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) and The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) have announced a new US$5 million partnership to accelerate the development of minimally invasive biomarkers for measuring pathologies associated with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

Isobel Coleman, Chief Executive Officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, said the partnership will accelerate the development of next-generation biomarkers by combining investment, scientific expertise and complementary capabilities to strengthen precision medicine for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The collaboration will focus on advancing detection of co-pathologies, including alpha-synuclein, a protein that accumulates in the brains of nearly all 6 million people worldwide living with Parkinson’s disease and an estimated 30-50% of those with Alzheimer’s disease. Detecting these clumps through non-invasive methods remains a major challenge in diagnosis and disease monitoring.

The partnership builds on previous ADDF and MJFF investments, including the development of a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assay for early detection of alpha-synuclein pathology. The University of Texas team behind the assay later launched biotech Amprion, funded by the ADDF, which partnered with MJFF’s Parkinson’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PPMI).

The new initiative aims to advance more scalable, minimally invasive biomarkers for alpha-synuclein and other disease targets. Mark Frasier, PhD, Chief Scientist at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, said the collaboration will bring together Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s researchers to identify shared disease mechanisms, accelerate biomarker development, improve patient selection for clinical trials and help evaluate therapies in those most likely to benefit.

The collaboration also supports the latest phase of the ADDF’s DxA initiative, which is focused on developing next-generation diagnostics for earlier detection, predicting disease progression, improving clinical trials and enabling precision medicine. Meanwhile, Niranjan Bose, PhD, Managing Director, Health & Life Sciences at Gates Ventures, said the partnership builds on the Diagnostics Accelerator’s efforts to identify, evaluate and validate promising diagnostic tools to improve detection of Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases and advance precision medicine.