MJFF’s Parkinson’s Conference Showcases Progress for Better Treatments

The 18th annual Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference gathered the global Parkinson's community in New York City on October 14-15, 2026, to connect over the latest findings shaping therapeutic development.

Finding a cure for Parkinson's disease (PD) isn't something that can be accomplished alone. It relies on the entire community - of scientists, clinicians, industry leaders, patients and many others - working together to turn discoveries into real-world solutions.

The power of collaboration is something the founder of The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), Michael J. Fox, is known to champion. So unsurprisingly, it is something that MJFF's annual Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference (PDTC) exemplifies. Now in its 18th year and perpetually in high demand, PDTC gathered the global PD community in New York City on October 14-15, 2026, to connect over the latest findings shaping Parkinson's therapeutic development.

In introductory remarks, Sohini Chowdhury, MJFF's chief program officer, encouraged attendees to use their time together to "challenge assumptions, to share what you learn, to question things and to find new ways to work together."

The only scientific conference worldwide focused exclusively on Parkinson's drug development, PDTC had an agenda that reflected a transformative shift happening in the field: from a one-size-fits-all model of Parkinson's care to a biologically driven approach that treats what each person with the disease is experiencing.

PDTC officially grew from a one- to two-day conference this year. Day one highlighted MJFF's expanding ecosystem of research programs, data platforms and scientific resources designed to speed the translation of promising science into potential therapies. Day two focused on new treatment approaches and emerging tools for tracking the disease and accelerating clinical trials.

Here are five takeaways from day two on progress altering the Parkinson's therapeutic landscape:

Treatments Are Diversifying with Deepening Understanding of PD

Researchers are learning more about the factors that can underpin PD in different people, including genetic variations, cellular pathways such as inflammation, age-related changes and environmental factors. They also are learning more about mixed pathologies, in which some individuals with Parkinson's also have biological changes associated with Alzheimer's or other neurodegenerative diseases. The diversity of these disease underpinnings helps explain why symptoms and progression vary - and indicates that different treatments are likely to be needed to target the disease biology affecting each person with or at-risk for Parkinson's.

PDTC speakers discussed strategies that build on this growing understanding of PD's underlying biology to more effectively advance PD therapeutic development.

Several clinical trials are advancing drugs targeting PD-linked changes in the LRRK2 and GBA1 genes, the neuroinflammation pathway and the toxic clumping and spreading of alpha-synuclein proteins. There also is expanding development of therapies focused on other targets. A PDTC session focused on these emerging therapies included promising results for drugs targeting mitochondrial dysfunction and lysosomal dysregulation, both of which can lead to neurodegeneration in PD.

Advances in Delivery Technologies Are Opening New Treatment Options

Several PDTC speakers highlighted emerging strategies for delivering treatments to the brain. These included a "brain shuttle" system to ferry neuroprotective antibodies into the brain and a peptide designed to penetrate the blood-brain barrier and reduce PD's toxic misfolded proteins. Another strategy involved activating structures in the brain, called proteasomes, that can clear clumps of these proteins.

A panel discussion focused on the emerging development of "durable" treatments such as gene therapy and cell replacement therapy, approaches which when delivered once have the potential to offer long-lasting, even lifetime benefits. After many years, strategies involving both approaches are advancing in clinical trials.

Earlier this year, a stem cell-based dopamine neuron replacement therapy for the treatment of motor symptoms in PD received conditional, limited approval for use in Japan, a first for this type of therapy. The therapy uses lab-grown neurons that are surgically transplanted into the putamen, a region of the brain involved in movement control that is affected in PD.

While currently this therapy is available only within the Japanese healthcare system, several other stem cell-based dopamine neuron replacement therapies are currently advancing in the United States. Among them, BlueRock Therapeutics is conducting a Phase III clinical trial of bemdaneprocel, an investigational therapy that uses stem cell-derived dopamine neurons transplanted into the brain to restore dopamine production. A range of approaches using gene therapy technologies also are in development. While these hold promise, the panel raised important challenges and considerations for how the healthcare system will need to prepare for their future effective and responsible delivery.

Critical Tools to Measure Parkinson's Underlying Biology Are Near

Researchers now have a critical tool for detecting Parkinson's hallmark misfolded alpha-synuclein proteins in people living with the disease, even years before they develop outward symptoms. Having more tools for mapping and measuring Parkinson's disease biology, commonly referred to as biomarkers, would "bend the curve," as one speaker said, for advancing therapies that slow the disease progression.

State-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, in particular, could revolutionize how clinical trials assess the impact of these therapies. In a session on precision medicine approaches in clinical development, Jamie Eberling, PhD, senior director of imaging research at MJFF, provided an update on this rapidly changing field.

She showed several examples of the tremendous progress in PET imaging tracers to reveal disease processes in the living brain. While improvements are still needed, the technology is on a path to measure, quantify and visualize PD's alpha-synuclein.

She highlighted efforts from MJFF to expand use of a specialized camera that provides more sensitive, higher resolution imaging compared to standard PET cameras. Called NeuroEXPLORER, this technology could be transformative for imaging small brain structures, like the substantia nigra, and low-density targets including alpha-synuclein, which is difficult to detect with conventional PET cameras.

Large-scale Data Analysis Holds Growing Promise for Disease Insights

Several presentations focused on how researchers are leveraging large datasets to learn more about how the disease starts and progresses in different people - and what this could mean for treatment.

The backbone of much of this research is the Neuronal Synuclein Disease Integrated Staging System (NSD-ISS), a research framework for defining and staging Parkinson's based on biology, including the presence or absence of misfolded alpha-synuclein in cerebrospinal fluid, and clinical measurements of symptoms and function.

For instance, the NSD-ISS provided the basis for a large-scale data analysis project from the Global Parkinson's Genetics Program (GP2) that was presented at PDTC. Researchers using polygenic risk scores revealed genetics affects PD progression: Individuals with higher scores tended to progress more rapidly to the next NSD-ISS stage. Next steps include narrowing these findings to learn which biological pathways play a role in this more-rapid progression.

PPMI Continues to Drive Progress across the Field

The Parkinson's Precision Medicine Initiative (PPMI) - formerly the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative - was credited throughout the conference as a keystone resource for the field. It has recruited thousands of people with and without Parkinson's to participate in research and built a vast biobank of biosamples and clinical data. It plays a central role in validating tools for detecting and tracking PD and in improving targeted trials. It is providing infrastructure for MJFF's pioneering early-intervention trial, due to launch later this year.

In short, PPMI continues to change what's possible for PD therapeutics.

"The name change reflects where the science is going as it drives biological advances that unlock a more personalized approach to treatment and care," said Sohini Chowdhury, MJFF's chief program officer, noting that this now includes an effort to intervene even before Parkinson's is diagnosed in people at-risk for the disease. "So, it's no longer just about how we treat PD, but it's becoming how we stop PD from even happening."

The 2026 Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference and Partnering Session were made possible through the generous support of our event sponsors. To learn more about sponsorship opportunities or ways to get involved in next year's event, please contact [email protected].

• Jen Fisher Wilson

  Senior Science Writer