About PD-AGE

The origins of PD-AGE

The genesis of our network stems from a collaboration among the Healthy Lifespan Institute, The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF), and the Cure Parkinson's Trust. This collaboration led to a symposium that gathered experts from academia and industry to assess existing PD models and delineate the aspects of PD they represent. The consensus was that the role of ageing in PD development remains ambiguous, necessitating a systematic exploration of whether ageing impacts the susceptibility to PD. The task force advocated for a comprehensive comparison of various models, encompassing Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC), mouse, rat, and non-human primate (NHP) models.

Recognising the scale and complexity of this endeavour, the task force acknowledged that individual researchers couldn't accomplish it alone. Thus, the most effective approach was to establish a collaborative network that amalgamated interdisciplinary expertise and facilitated resource, knowledge, and data sharing. This laid the groundwork for the formation of the PD-Age network, now comprising researchers from over 30 institutes.

Funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation, we take pride in contributing to the collective effort to expedite progress in PD and ageing research. Our objective is to forge a robust, coordinated network of researchers committed to enhancing our comprehension of PD and ageing. We firmly believe that our collaborative approach will yield more substantial advancements in research than individual endeavours could achieve.

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Objectives

The network's objectives are:

• Reach consensus and deliver a roadmap of which mouse models of PD should be prioritised for testing in ageing studies and learning from best practise on how to design experiments in ageing mice. 
• Reach a consensus on what should be measured for the characterisation of each mouse model and which protocols should be standardised in mouse studies.
• Reach a consensus on when to use iPSCs for studying the role of ageing in PD and identify differences in protocols, which may affect the generation of cellular ageing features. 
• Reach a consensus on which tools and reagents are required to develop models of PD in rats and deliver a roadmap on how this can be achieved. 
• Reach a consensus on which protocol/operating procedures should be standardised in rat studies to improve reproducibility and should be reported consistently.
• Establish consensus on which reagents and tools are required for the study of models using NHP and ageing. 
• Reach consensus on which protocols/operating procedures should be standardised to improve reproducibility in NHP and what the key features (behaviourally and pathologically) should be reproduced in the “ideal” NHP model. 
• Create a centralized secure web-based data management system, which acts as a data repository with details of models developed, data generated (e.g. pathology, omics, biochemistry, cell biology, phenotype) including negative data, standard operating procedures and stored tissues to be made available for pathology and gene expression studies to other researchers. 
• Establish an early career research group, embedded in the activities of the network and build capacity by forming a community of researchers with knowledge of PD and ageing.