EU project Trace-PD: Payer for early Parkinson's diagnosis!

EU project Trace-PD: Payer for early Parkinson's diagnosis!

Marburg, Deutschland - On June 1, 2025, the European TRACE PD joint project will be officially launched, with the aim of understanding the early phases of Parkinson's disease before symptoms occur. This innovative project is coordinated by the Philipps University Marburg under the direction of Prof. Dr. David Pedrosa. The project is part of the EU research initiative Joint Programs-Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) and receives a funding amount of 266,000 euros for its Marburg part. Overall, the project's budget amounts to around 1.3 million euros and the term is scheduled until mid -2028. Several countries are involved in this comprehensive research project, including Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

trace-PD focuses on examining the resilience and compensation mechanisms of the brain. The aim is to identify central mechanisms of disease progression and find new biomarkers that could be important for early diagnosis. For this purpose, multicenter data records of patients are analyzed in the early phase of Parkinson's disease, including through the latest imaging methods such as EEG, MEG, PET, Spect and MRI. An exciting development is expected at the Karolinska institute in Stockholm, where the effect of compensatory processes under dopamine set therapy is examined.

The phases of Parkinson's disease

The understanding of the course of the disease is crucial for research. Parkinson's disease, the most common form of Parkinson's disease in Germany, accounts for about three quarters of all Parkinson's syndromes. The course of the disease is divided into two main phases: the Prodromal stage and the clinical phase. While the Prodromal stage, which can last several years, has hardly any motor symptoms, the typical motor symptoms that are intensified in the course of the clinical phase are shown in the clinical phase

A typical course can be divided into five stages:

The progression of the disease varies greatly between individuals and can be influenced by various factors such as age in diagnosis, the type and severity of symptoms as well as lifestyle and health. Measures to slow down the course include drug treatment, physiotherapy and, if necessary, deep brain stimulation. The progress in research could revolutionize future therapy approaches.

The progress in Parkinson's research

Current therapeutic approaches mainly focus on the symptomatic treatment of Parkinson's disease. Nevertheless, research is intensively researched. This requires precise identification of biomarkers. Biomarkers are measurable biological indicators that can show the pathological process at an early stage. New findings show that patients with risk factors can be tested positively up to ten years before the occurrence of motor symptoms.

Professor Brit Mollenhauer, a leading voice in Parkinson's research, emphasizes that progress in biomarker research, such as the detection of misfolding Alpha-Synuclein, could facilitate early diagnosis. These developments could pave the way for disease -modifying therapies and enable the transition from symptomatic to preventive, personalized treatments up to 2040. It is estimated that around 6 million people live with Parkinson's worldwide, over 400,000 of them in Germany. Identification and use of effective biomarkers are thus becoming increasingly important in order to enable tailor -made therapies in the future.

The Trace-PD project will thus make a decisive contribution to basic research and open prospects for personalized medicine in Parkinson's, which is of far-reaching importance for those affected and their relatives

Sources: Philipps-Universität Marburg , Medisiegel , Parkinson Gesellschaft .