Background pattern of a brain with neural connections

Team Tansey

Investigating the role of immune cell exhaustion (ICE) and biological immune aging (BIA) in PD risk and PD heterogeneity

2026-Present

Age is the greatest risk factor for idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease (iPD), yet the contribution of the aging immune system to PD has been underexplored (1). Our recent work revealed that PD-linked LRRK2 mutations trigger age-acquired immune cell exhaustion (ICE) detectable in peripheral myeloid cells of mice and humans with LRRK2-PD (2). We hypothesize that ICE also contributes to risk and heterogeneity of iPD. Our proposal will investigate the extent to which ICE develops as a function of age, at specific stages of iPD, how infections contribute to ICE, and if ICE is necessary and/or sufficient to induce brain PD-like pathology.

Tags
AgingBloodImmune responseInfection modelsInflammationLRRK2Lysosomal dysfunctionPeripheral immune systemSingle-cell multi-omics

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In the News

Decoding the Blueprint: Advancing Personalized Parkinson’s Treatments

Decoding the Blueprint: Advancing Personalized Parkinson’s Treatments

05/21/2026 — In our community, we often hear: “If you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s, you’ve met one person with Parkinson’s.” This isn’t just an adage — it’s a biological reality. This radical variability is exactly what makes the disease so difficult to outsmart. We’ve learned that a puzzle this fragmented cannot be solved with a single, broad stroke. Our goal isn’t to find one answer for everyone, but the right answer for the right person at the right time.

Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s and The Michael J. Fox Foundation Expand Global Research Initiative with $261M Investment Toward Personalized Treatments

Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s and The Michael J. Fox Foundation Expand Global Research Initiative with $261M Investment Toward Personalized Treatments

04/28/2026 — Today, Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP), in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF), announced $261 million in new grant funding for the Collaborative Research Network (CRN) to map the biological blueprint of Parkinson’s disease and build a standardized toolkit of global research resources that are needed to turn discoveries into treatments.

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