PPMI | Page 34

Dear PPMI Participant, As a researcher, and both the son of a father and the student of a mentor who both had PD, I am dedicated to finding a cure for PD in our lifetime. PPMI is so important for giving the research community access to the most valuable biologic reagents for better diagnosing and treating PD. My own work focuses on studying new biomarkers and therapeutic targets that circulate in cerebrospinal fluid and blood, and the PPMI samples will allow our work to move forward much more quickly and with the highest level of precision. Discovering a biomarker for the progression of PD will not only represent ways we can diagnose earlier and monitor disease course, but, even more exciting, will help discover new therapies and potentially a cure for PD. Thank you all so much for making this huge gift to this wonderful program that is already bearing fruit for new treatments and hopefully a near-future cure for Parkinson’s. Dennis Steindler, PhD Professor of Medical Research University of Florida College of Medicine 30