Tiny pieces of discarded plastics like styrofoam may promote Parkinson’s
This story reports on a research study by Team Liddle that found that nanoplastics that can reach a person’s brain can increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease or its progression by prompting the protein alpha-synuclein to clump and turn toxic.
2023 ASAP Collaborative Meeting series – A look back
ASAP’s 2023 Collaborative Meetings welcomed core leadership and trainees from each CRN team to create a space to make connections, share their work, and spark new ideas that spanned career levels, disciplines, and continents. Each event showcased participants who received awards for their work that they presented at the meeting.
Risk factor for Parkinson’s discovered in genes from people of African descent
Read NPR's coverage of GP2's historic GBA1 finding. This article by Jon Hamilton includes interviews with ASAP's Managing Director, Dr. Ekemini A. U. Riley, and lead GP2 study researchers, Andy Singleton and Sara Bandres-Ciga.
Brain’s hidden “junk” – mysterious RNA circles produced by cells damaged in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease
SciTechDaily discusses a research study by Team Scherzer that identified over 11,000 distinct RNA circles that characterized brain cells implicated in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Gene variant found linking people of African descent to higher Parkinson’s risk
Dr. Ekemini A. U. Riley, managing director of ASAP, joins PBS NewsHour to discuss findings from the GBA1 discovery and the power of collaborative, open science to unlock discoveries for populations traditionally underrepresented in research.
UNILAG researchers unravel novel Parkinson’s genetic risk factor in Africans
The Guardian Nigeria reports on GP2 and its collaboration with the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to uncover a genetic variant that increases the risk of PD in Africans and African admixed populations.
