Metabolon Partners with the University of Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre

Metabolon and the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre will identify new metabolomic biomarkers to advance Parkinson’s research and detect new therapeutic targets.

MORRISVILLE, N.C. – August 23, 2022 – Metabolon, Inc., the global leader in providing metabolomics solutions that advance a wide variety of research, diagnostic, therapeutic development, and precision medicine applications, today announced it is partnering with the University of Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre to identify metabolomic biomarkers related to Parkinson’s disease progression and prediction and to detect new therapeutic targets.

The Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre (OPDC) is a unique multidisciplinary research program at the University of Oxford. Founded in 2010, OPDC Discovery, also known as the Oxford Discovery Cohort, is a leading Parkinson’s biomarker cohort and among the most deeply phenotyped and genotyped Parkinson’s cohorts in the world. This unique cohort also includes a population of patients diagnosed with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) that are at risk of developing Parkinson’s.

Through this collaboration, Metabolon will perform global metabolomics on longitudinal serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples collected by OPDC. This will enable Metabolon and Oxford to gain insights into the metabolomic changes occurring during Parkinson’s disease progression over many years in this deeply phenotyped cohort. The metabolomic data will be incorporated with clinical and genetic data to provide a holistic view of Parkinson’s over the course of the disease.

“We are thrilled to partner with the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre to support their mission to improve research and understanding of the biology of early Parkinson’s,” said Rohan Hastie, Ph.D., President and CEO of Metabolon. “Metabolon’s highly accurate data will enable the identification of metabolomic biomarkers crucial to understanding and better predicting Parkinson’s disease progression to help improve patient care and the proactive management of symptoms.”

“I am excited to be collaborating with Metabolon, who are global leaders in their field and ISO 9001:2015 recertified, reflecting their highest standards of testing and quality assurance. Understanding the unique, real-time fingerprint of an individual’s biological system alongside individual clinical and digital measures captured longitudinally across the Oxford Discovery cohort is a powerful combination. I am optimistic this will lead to tailored treatments to reverse deranged metabolic pathways in Parkinson’s, as well as biomarkers that capture each individual’s response to these therapies,” said Professor Michele Hu, University of Oxford.