Science 1st: Common Pathways and Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and ALS affect millions of people worldwide. [1] Despite a significant number of clinical failures in recent years, the search for new treatments that can slow or stop progression of neurodegenerative diseases continues to be an active area of pursuit by the research and pharma communities.  While much of the effort in drug development has centered on well-known disease pathologies (e.g. amyloid and tau for AD), advances in genetics, imaging, and biomarkers has led to a deeper understanding of disease pathophysiology and opened up new approaches to therapeutic development.  Furthermore, as we start to uncover the molecular underpinnings of these diseases it has become clear that diseases that have historically been viewed as distinct, may indeed share common disease pathways and mechanisms.  These advances have already had a significant impact on the research directed towards novel treatments, as well as how we design and execute clinical trials.  Collaborative networks in genomic research, multidisciplinary approaches to diagnosis and the necessity to reduce the risk of drug development are all shaping new therapeutic approaches and new business models.