PPMI launches

The research record

This is the project's file for this landmark, as written and checked. Sources are listed at the end; anything not yet confirmed is marked "Not yet verified".

Who

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) is the sponsor; it launched PPMI in 2010 with a core group of academic scientists and industry partners, and the study site lists support from more than 40 public, private and philanthropic investors. MJFF calls it a $750 million public-private partnership and names ASAP as its major funder (these are MJFF's own figures). It now has nearly 50 clinical sites in 12 countries. Lead scientific figures include Kenneth Marek (first author of both description papers), Tanya Simuni and Andrew Siderowf.

What happened

PPMI began in 2010 as an observational study designed to find biomarkers of progression for slowing-the-disease trials. Its 2011 description paper planned 400 recently diagnosed patients and 200 healthy controls at 21 sites (Marek et al., Prog Neurobiol 95:629–635). Its 2018 results paper reported 423 untreated early Parkinson's participants, 196 healthy controls and 64 "SWEDD" participants (clinical parkinsonism but no dopamine-transporter deficit) at 24 sites, with spinal fluid collected from over 97%. Data, imaging and a biosample library are open access. By the 2025 investigators' meeting there were over 4,000 clinic participants, about 3,000 seed-amplification assays and 7,000 DaTscans. On 29 April 2025 it lowered the age for screening people without Parkinson's from 60 to 40, tied to smell testing and the seed amplification assay. The staging system of landmark 28 is built on PPMI data.

Why it moved us toward a cure

It created the standardised dataset behind the seed amplification assay (landmark 9) and the NSD-ISS staging. The FDA's September 2024 letter of support for the assay explicitly rests on PPMI data.

Outcome

Advanced; ongoing and expanding. No shutdown or change found for 2026. Europe PMC lists no correction or retraction for either description paper. It is infrastructure rather than a mechanism step, so it is the weakest "toward a cure" argument of the batch, but arguably the one that enabled the most.

Sources

• Marek et al., Ann Clin Transl Neurol 2018;5:1460–1477, DOI 10.1002/acn3.644
• Marek et al., Prog Neurobiol 2011;95:629–635, DOI 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2011.09.005, PMID 21930184
• PPMI "About"
• MJFF, 2025 PPMI annual investigators meeting highlights
• MJFF expansion announcement, 29 Apr 2025
• MJFF on the FDA Letter of Support, Sept 2024
• Not yet verified: current enrolment beyond MJFF's own figures; the exact launch date within 2010 (a trade-press item is dated 28 Sep 2010). Funding figures come from MJFF's own materials; some descriptions date the pilot earlier than 2010.