2025 Year in Review
The Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA had a highly engaged and productive year in 2025, focused on accelerating GBA-PD research through our global Fellowship Program, and key industry and scientific events. We are proud to share the following update.
The Silverstein Foundation Fellowship Program is our core mechanism for accelerating research, now comprising 26 Fellows across 17 Institutions.
In September, we launched the second cohort of the program with 15 new fellows. This highly selective two-year postdoctoral program provides our fellows with full salary as well as invaluable opportunities for networking and professional development. Targeted areas of research for the 2nd cohort include under-explored aspects of the disease such as understanding various determinants of GBA-PD penetrance (onset and progression), biomarker development for more advanced and precise diagnosis, and mechanisms to attenuate progression.
This cohort’s host institutions are:
- Harvard Medical School (Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Boston Children’s Hospital)
- Mount Sinai Health System
- Stanford University
- Northwestern University
- Baylor College of Medicine
- University of Oxford (UK)
- The University College London Medical School (UK)
- Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Tel Aviv University (Israel)
- Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (Canada)
- The University of Ottawa (Canada)
- University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
- University of Pavia (Italy)
- The Institute for Biomedicine of Eurac Research (Italy)
The inaugural cohort, which launched in 2023, concluded their foundational work, which provides critical insights into lysosomal biology, neurolipidomics, the development of novel assays for drug screening, and neuroinflammatory responses. To learn more and read these scientific papers, click here for our publications listing.
The following events reinforced the Foundation’s belief in the power of open science and collaboration:
- AD/PD Meeting in Vienna (April): Cohort 1 Fellows presented research, engaged with global leaders, and contributed their insights to conversations surrounding neurodegenerative disease.
- First Annual Industry Insights Meeting (May): The Foundation coordinated the first virtual industry insights meeting where leaders from 9 biopharma companies presented diverse therapeutic strategies, including restoring cellular recycling, developing GCase-stabilizing molecules, and boosting GCase enzyme activity.
- GBA1 Conference in Montreal (June): The Foundation co-sponsored this event which showcased a promising therapeutic pipeline, ranging from small molecule GCase activators and stabilizers to next-generation gene and cell therapies.
- Silverstein Fellows Cohort 2 Launch Meeting in New York (October): The new cohort of fellows presented their research plans and networked with each other and select biopharma executives.
Updates on Previous Grants and New Company Formation
Four companies that were co-founded by the Silverstein Foundation are poised to enter Phase II clinical trials. Click on the links below to learn more.
We thank you for your continued interest in and support of our work and wish you a very happy holiday season!
