Our Mission

The Michael Stern Parkinson’s Research Foundation sponsors research at leading academic centers in the U.S.  The centers are headed by the foremost leaders in Parkinson’s research and were chosen for the high quality of their research programs. Each has already made significant contributions to the understanding of the disease and possible treatment therapies. 

Finding the cause, finding more effective treatments and discovering the cure for Parkinson's, the second most common neurological disorder is the focus of the Michael Stern Parkinson's Research Foundation. The foundation was established in 2001 to support and expand the pioneering research of our laboratory at The Rockefeller University, under the direction of Dr. Paul Greengard. Dr. Greengard discovered the fundamental rules by which neurons in the brain and spinal cord interact with one another work that earned him medicine's highest honor, the Nobel Prize. He did this largely by examining the effects of the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical messenger that is progressively lost in Parkinson's disease. By teasing apart the intricate pathways and second messengers by which dopamine exerts its array of effects on neurons, Dr. Greengard and his team of scientists are laying the groundwork for a new generation of Parkinson's medications to stop the disease in its tracks or prevent it altogether.

Dr. Greengard has assembled a close knit group of more than 25 outstanding scientists who are focused on translating the fundamental understandings about the dopamine system into new treatments for Parkinson's. The core team of researchers based at the Stern Foundation laboratory on the campus of The Rockefeller University interacts continually with collaborators from the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Italy, Japan and Korea. This global presence ensures that no promising research lead is overlooked, and that progress can be made on multiple fronts simultaneously.

 As the Foundation grew it was able to expand its support for critical neurological research to two other institutions, Harvard University’s McLean Hospital, where we support the research of Dr. Ole Isacson whose research lab, The Stern Center for Neuroregeneration Research is using gene therapy to protect the most vulnerable neurons in PD models; and the Institute for Neurodegenerative Disorders, where Yale Professors Dr. Ken Marek and Dr. John Seibyl are developing novel tools for early detection and monitoring of Parkinson’s disease by studying physiologic, biochemical and neuroimaging biomarkers for non-dominergic manifestations of Parkinsonism.