- The collaboration between the two organizations is expected to facilitate deeper insights into Parkinson’s disease as well as its progression.
- The collaboration would initially run over a one-year period with the aim of developing a disease progression model.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), the renowned American multinational IT company, has reportedly announced that it is partnering with a non-profit research organization, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, for Parkinson’s disease research.
Reports cite, under the partnership agreement, the two organizations would be developing a new technology that would be capable of better tracking the early onset as well as the progression of the Parkinson’s disease.
According to a press release by IBM, under the collaboration, the foundation would be providing IBM with grants as well as the in-depth data it has gathered in its Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) regarding Parkinson’s disease over the years. This would allow the IT company to better understand the disease so that it can develop an innovative disease progression model that would allow for more effective treatments.
The Program Director of Center for Computational Health, IBM, Jianying Hu stated that the collaboration would be merging the advantages of both the organizations. Hu further added that the deal would greatly help the company to develop a disease progression model that would support the disease’s understanding, its progression and also enhance the process of drug discovery.
Reports claim, the partnership would initially be spanning over a period of one year with the aim of successfully constructing the disease progression model, that the researchers hope would be validated successfully by clinical experts.
For the record, the disease progression models help medical researchers ascertain how a particular disease starts, what the disease’s characteristics are across its different stages, the speed of their progression and also the factors that have an impact on the progression.
According to reports, the financial information related to the partnership agreement has not been unveiled yet.
