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Postdoctoral researcher Nimish Acharya, center, along with students Cassandra DeMarshall and Abhirup Sarkar, are working with Dr. Robert Nagele of the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine in developing a diagnostic test that can detect Alzheimers and Parkinsons before symptoms develop, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013. (Staff Photo by Tim Hawk/South Jersey Times)

The Michael J. Fox Foundation has taken a $700,000 interest in Parkinson's disease research that was born in South Jersey and promises to produce a diagnostic test for early detection of the disease.

“It’s a tremendous help. It couldn’t be done without them,” said Dr. Robert Nagele, a researcher with the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine.

Nagele heads a team of researchers out of the Stratford-based medical school, formerly known as the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. For decades he’s been researching Alzheimer’s disease, a neuro-degenerative disease impacting a person’s memory.

Several years ago, though, Nagele’s research team made a big-time breakthrough. The South Jersey researchers developed a diagnostic test they believe could, with one drop of blood, determine if a person has Alzheimer's disease years before symptoms would ever develop.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation, focused on a cure for Parkinson’s disease, picked up on Nagele’s research last year when the South Jersey researchers released findings that biological principles behind the Alzheimer’s test could work for Parkinson’s, too.

The test, Nagele explained, looks for “autoantibodies” which clean up debris inside the body that are created from day-to-day activity.

“When you have a disease and things are breaking down, you’re generating an excessive amount of debris from that one spot,” he said.

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Every disease should have an associated autoantibody, which, for researchers, could prove to be a marker that indicates a disease is present, Nagele added.

“We think the same could be true for other diseases like cancer,” Nagele said.

So far, the national foundation is specifically interested in a detector for Parkinson’s disease, and has twice fronted more than $350,000 to fund studies out of the Stratford research center.

The first foundation-funded study launched about a year ago with “some very good success,” Nagele said. It tested foundation-provided blood samples collected from individuals known to be in the very early stages of the disease.

“It detected early stage Parkinson’s with greater than 90 percent accuracy,” he said.

The victory prompted another $360,000 study funded by the foundation. The second study, which tests a larger set of samples, is still ongoing.

Favorable results combined with the foundation affiliation could push Nagele’s team closer to federal Food and Drug Administration approval for medical use, which typically takes years to achieve.

Even if Michael J. Fox Foundation funding isn't available for additional studies on Nagele’s diagnostic test, the organization is influential with the National Institute of Health and attracts funding through industries, Nagele said.

“They have those types of connections,” Nagele said. “They are very aggressive and very good and very focused on the Parkinson’s problem.”

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Contact staff writer Carly Q. Romalino at 856-686-3655 or cromalino@southjerseymedia.com