Lario Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company in Edinburgh, Scotland, has announced a $6 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in support of a preclinical program investigating calcium channel inhibition for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

In collaboration with the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre, which will be delivering key science as part of the grant, the program will investigate selective CaV2.3 calcium channel inhibition as a novel and disease-modifying approach for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. According to Lario, there is extensive literature linking calcium channels to pathology of the disease, and preclinical experimental studies have demonstrated that the deletion of CaV2.3 can have a protective effect against disease progression.

“This significant funding from the Michael J. Fox Foundation will aid the work out of our therapeutic pipeline and the work we have achieved so far in advancing research in the field,” said Lario Therapeutics co-founder and CEO Henning Steinhagen. “This grant will help drive our ambition to progress our Cav2.3 program swiftly toward the clinic, to provide a new, effective treatment option for people with Parkinson’s disease.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/DavorLovincic)