Support for research on neurodegenerative disorders

Currently, neurological and psychiatric disorders (Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, paraplegia, stroke, depression, etc.) affect 1 in every 8 people in Europe. This assessment has led to the creation of the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (Brain and Spine Institute - ICM), an international research centre located in Paris, France, at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. Its mission is to improve the diagnosis, to prevent and to find treatments for brain and spinal cord diseases.

The Air Liquide Foundation has decided to support for a two year period ICM research for an amount of € 120,000 on the analysis of the mechanisms of neuronal degeneration in Parkinson’s disease and development of diagnosis and treatment methods to slow down the progression of the disease and correct the symptoms.

This support will be devoted to the team of ICM researchers headed by Dr Etienne Hirsch, neurobiologist and Assistant Director of the ICM Research Center. This team studies the “cellular respiration” dysfunction which is involved in Parkinson’s disease and which is responsible for the degeneration characteristic of this pathology. The project concerns the role of iron in mitochondria, which generates energy in cells, as well as the mechanism by which it alters cellular respiration.

The financing of this study falls within the framework of one of the Air Liquide Foundation’s three sponsorship areas: scientific research for the improvement of respiratory function.