Dear readers,
BRACE YOURSELF. I'm going to say something that sounds really, really boring. The thing I want to talk about today is....FEDERAL😦RESEARCH😨FUNDING😱. Even worse, I'm asking you to join a webinar about this. You might ask, "Kelly, what did I ever do to you??" If you're 100% satisfied with the state of Parkinson's medicine today, and think that we should stop looking for new treatments/cures, don't go to this webinar. If you think there's room for improvement, register here for the Society for Neuroscience webinar taking place at noon on Monday, March 30th. If I haven't convinced you yet, let me tell you a story about lizard spit.
Corporations and foundations fund research for treatments and cures (applied research), but the federal government funds the basic research that enables scientists to know where and how to start looking for those treatments and cures. Decades ago, someone asked, "What's in lizard spit?" While a corporation would never fund the research to find out, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did. That bit of basic research led to the discovery of GLP-1, better known as Ozempic. Today, as a drug for diabetes and weight loss, the GLP-1 market is worth $66 billion. All thanks to curiosity, lizards, and the federal government.
We can thank federal funding for L-dopa (Sinemet, Rytary, etc.), GPS, Doppler radar, pacemakers, many life-saving treatments for newborns, the internet, and more. While Parkinson's discoveries big and small are happening daily, continued funding is under threat. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is calling for federal funding to Parkinson's research not only to be saved, but to be nearly doubled, in order to accelerate new discoveries. That won't happen without support from you and me and as many people as we can get involved.
(Every $1 of NIH spending generates an average return of $2.30, creating jobs, and new inventions and treatments -- so it's also a smart investment!)
Have I convinced you yet? Here's the registration link again, for the webinar at noon on Monday, March 30th. You'll learn how federal funding works, and how to take meaningful action to support it. If I've got you fired up, but you're unable to attend, I've included information below about how to contact your federal elected officials.
Thank you for supporting our PD community!
Kelly Ryberg, MA, CCRP
Editor, Parkinson's Pulse | 
