In a roundup of initiatives from disease foundations around genetics, The Wall Street Journal included mention of a couple from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF).

Reporter Ron Winslow wrote about the MJFF-led Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) and the study’s latest plans for expansion into studying biomarkers associated with mutations of the LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein genes. Stay tuned for more about that PPMI cohort when it launches later this year.

"It's a very exciting set of experiments that will open a lot of doors and give us a lot of insight that previously wasn't there," David Schenkein, chief executive officer of Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc., who is not involved in PPMI, told Winslow.

The article also mentioned MJFF’s early funding of Amicus Therapeutics, which entered into a partnership with Biogen Idec last week to pursue disease-modifying Parkinson’s drugs.

Read the full article [Sub req].