A Connecticut-based company is at the forefront of advancing healthcare innovation in Parkinson’s disease research. XingImaging, headquartered in New Haven, has partnered with SynuSight Biotech to secure a $3.84 million grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation to develop a new imaging tracer, 18F-FD4, that targets the protein α-synuclein.
This tracer could become the first of its kind to directly visualize the brain changes tied to Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy, and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. Early detection of these conditions has been challenging, as current tools like DATScan lack the molecular precision to identify α-synuclein, a hallmark of disease progression.
Roger Gunn, CSO at XingImaging, said, "This represents a pivotal opportunity to advance one of the most promising alpha-synuclein PET tracers in humans, ensuring its full characterization and optimization for imaging in Parkinson's disease. We are deeply grateful for the support of the Michael J. Fox Foundation and share their commitment to developing a robust PET imaging biomarker targeting the core pathological hallmark of PD. Such a biomarker would significantly enhance our understanding of the disease, its progression, and will play a central role in clinical trials evaluating new treatments."
Roger Fan, CEO at SynuSight Biotech, added, 'We are deeply honored to receive support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for the development of the 18F-FD4 program. Our early Investigator-Initiated Trials have already demonstrated superior imaging performance in patients with PD, MSA, and RBD. Backed by the MJFF grant, we are now well-positioned to accelerate our validation efforts through additional clinical studies with XingImaging and fully unleash the potential of 18F-FD4 to advance the development of disease-modifying therapies. Ultimately, we believe this tracer has the potential to transform the diagnosis and management of diseases and benefit millions of patients worldwide.'
Jamie Eberling, PhD, senior vice president of research resources at The Michael J. Fox Foundation, noted, "We continue to monitor the tremendous progress and advances in alpha-synuclein imaging. XingImaging and SynuSight Biotech's F-FD4 programming is another hopeful step toward an urgently needed tool that could clearly measure, quantify and visualize brain pathology in Parkinson's disease."
The research, driven from New Haven, highlights Connecticut’s growing role in medical and healthcare innovation.
