The Michael J. Fox Foundation has named six academic centers in the United States and Germany to host the second class of the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders.
The fellowship program is made possible by the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, a longtime supporter and partner of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The program aims to cultivate movement disorder specialists treating people with Parkinson's and contribute to research toward breakthrough treatments for the disease by increasing resources for specialized training for clinician-researcher neurologists.
Listed below are the centers selected for the 2017-2019 fellowship class.
1. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York
2. University of California San Francisco
3. Rush University in Chicago
4. University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
5. University of Rochester (N.Y.)
6. University of Tübingen in Germany
"We're grateful to Lily Safra and the Edmond J. Safra Foundation for their vision in seeding the pipeline of future specialists in the treatment of Parkinson's disease," said Mr. Fox. "It was gratifying to see clinicians and researchers respond with enthusiasm when the program launched last year — we can't wait to see what the future may hold."
Mr. Fox, a well-known actor, was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease in 1991 when he was just 30 years old. He did not disclose his condition to the public until 1998 and he semi-retired from acting in 2000, when his symptoms worsened. He went on to create the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2010 to help advance research in the field of Parkinson's disease.
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