The ASAP Collaborative Research Network (CRN) has established several working groups to unite investigators across disciplines and institutions in addressing shared challenges and advancing Parkinson’s disease (PD) research.
These groups focus on identifying bottlenecks, setting goals, and delivering actionable outputs with the goal of moving the PD field forward. By fostering coordination beyond individual research themes, the working groups serve as engines for community-wide innovation, ensuring that insights, tools, and datasets generated by CRN teams are broadly usable, reproducible, and aligned with ASAP’s commitment to transparency and collaboration.
Scroll down to explore some of the working groups and see how CRN members are building a stronger, more connected research community. Together, we are creating the infrastructure that accelerates discovery and benefits the entire scientific field.
The outcomes of these working groups have resulted in:
Standardized protocols, data reporting templates, and tools across the network.
Collaborative data sharing and analysis pipelines for multi-omics and neurophysiology datasets.
Trainee resources to promote engagement and professional development opportunities.
Advanced understanding of priority PD research challenges.
CRN Rodent Behaviour Assay Guidelines
These guidelines from the Assessment of Motor & Non-Motor PD Symptoms Working Group offer general considerations for labs performing behavioral assays in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease, with a focus on the most commonly used behavioral assays within the CRN based on an April 2024 survey of the network. While there are many symptoms important to the diagnosis and progression of Parkinson’s disease, this document highlight these domains and subsequent assays because of their widespread use in the field.
README Files for Code
A README file is often the first thing someone will see when viewing code in a code repository such as GitHub. README files should be written to assume limited prior knowledge by the reader and should clearly describe the purpose of the code, including what data it processes, how it cleans and analyzes that data, any specific steps required to run the code successfully, and the outputs it produces. This document from the Single Cell Multi(omics) Working Group is to provide guidance on how to write README files for code.
ASAP hSPC Quality Control Recommendation Document
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), encompassing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and embryonic stem cells (ESCs), have the potential to provide improved human cellular models that can be utilized to better understand mechanisms of biology, disease pathogenesis and target identification. However, many iPSC cell lines across the field have variable genetic and phenotypic characterization, limiting their use in research and therapy. This document from the iPSC QC Recommendation Working Group provides recommendations for hPSC quality control.
Lessons from inducible pluripotent stem cell models on neuronal senescence in aging and neurodegeneration
The Senescence Working Group produced a review article on utilizing iPSC model systems to investigate neuronal senescence in aging, as well as in degenerative diseases such as PD, Alzheimer’s and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
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Assessment of Motor and Non-Motor PD Symptoms
The goal of the Assessment of Motor & Non-Motor PD Symptoms working group is to highlight the opportunities and unmet needs in modeling human PD symptoms in different animal models across species.
#Motor symptoms
#Non-motor symptoms
Clinical & Immune
The goal of the Clinical & Immune working group is to identify and standardize common core data collected across CRN teams.
#Biospecimen
#Clinical feature
#Clinical measures
Comparative Neuroanatomy
The goal of the Comparative Neuroanatomy working group is to compare the neuroanatomical organization of the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits and related brainstem regions in primates and rodents.
#Neural circuitry
#NHP (Non-Human Primate)
#Rodent models
iPSC QC Recommendations
The goal of the iPSC QC Recommendation working group is to provide recommendations on iPSC and cell type quality control metrics and resources to aid cell line selection and improve iPSC-derived cell type characterization.
#hiPSCs (Human induced pluripotent stem cells)
#hPSCs (Human pluripotent stem cells)
#iPSCs (Induced pluripotent stem cells)
#Stem cells – embryonic
PFF Gut-Brain
The goal of the PFF Gut-Brain working group is to standardize and validate the gut PFF model of Parkinson’s disease.
#Brain
#Fibril
#Gut
#Pre-formed fibrils (PFFs)
Senescence
The goal of the Senescence working group is to assess senescence models systems associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.
#Senescence
Single Cell Multi(omics)
The goal of the Single Cell Multi(omics) working group is to maximize the value of finite PM brain resources through sample alignment, protocol/data alignments, code and pipeline review, and alignment of data repositories.
#Multi-omics
#Omics
#Post-mortem brain tissues
#Single-cell multi-omics
Single Cell Omics QC Recommendation
The goal of the Single Cell Omic QC Recommendation working group is to provide requirements for the development of a QC/V&V data pipeline that can support the CRN single-cell omics data in a way that makes it most useful to our Parkinson’s research community.
#CRN Cloud Platform
#Omics
#Quality Control (QC)
#Single-cell multi-omics
Trainee
The goal of the Trainee working group is to meet the current needs of trainees in the ASAP network. Ultimately, this will build a stronger scientific community, which will increase the success of efforts in PD research.
#Trainee
CRN working groups support collaboration by combining expertise and diverse perspectives to better identify and address knowledge gaps in the field, ensure coordination of research priorities, and share findings in real time to minimize duplication of efforts.
