A research assistant professor in the medical school鈥檚 Department of Investigative Medicine has been awarded an 18-month, $200,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson鈥檚 Research for his research project exploring the role of FAIM in Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
The project by Hiroaki Kaku, PhD, 鈥淭he Role of FAIM in Parkinson鈥檚 disease,鈥 builds on his decade of experience studying Fas Apoptosis Inhibitory Molecule (FAIM) functions in immune cells. Now, Dr. Kaku is studying neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
鈥淚n the process of studying FAIM function, I hypothesized that FAIM activity might be useful to prevent or treat neurodegenerative diseases,鈥 Dr. Kaku said. 鈥淏ecause聽I thought FAIM鈥檚 activity is very important in the future aging world since neurodegenerative聽diseases are developed聽typically聽in people over 65 years old, I decided to change my field of聽study.鈥
FAIM protect cells from stress-induced death by preventing protein aggregation induced by cellular聽stress, Dr. Kaku said.聽Cells and tissues are continually exposed to cellular stress such as heat stress and oxidative stress, which causes cellular damages. Protein aggregates such as amyloid-beta and alpha-synuclein are major聽causes of聽Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and聽Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
鈥淚聽hypothesized six years ago that FAIM might have a protective role in聽Parkinson鈥檚 disease, but had not had a chance to prove this聽hypothesis using samples from聽Parkinson鈥檚聽disease patients聽due to a lack of any funding support,鈥 Dr. Kaku said. 鈥淣ow with funding from聽the Michael J. Fox Foundation I finally got the chance.鈥
Dr. Kaku started his initial work on the FAIM in 2007 in order to determine its unknown role in the immune system. In the process of the study, he discovered that FAIM protects cells from cellular stress by preventing protein aggregates/fibrils. More recently, he found that FAIM can prevent and reverse various protein aggregates including alpha-synuclein, which is the major hallmark of Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
Dr. Kaku said his project will determine whether - or to what extent - FAIM affects Parkinson鈥檚 disease pathogenesis using human models, which may lead to new preventive and therapeutic options for Parkinson鈥檚 disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.