Hi everyone, below is the content of the April Data Community Newsletter we sent out via email on April 3rd. Let us know if you didn’t receive it, or if you have topics you’d like to see in future newsletters!
April 2026 Data Community Newsletter
Community Programming
Do you work with (or are interested in) wearable sensor data in PD? Have you encountered challenges deriving insights from these real-life data? If so, please join us for our next webinar on Thursday, April 30th, 1:00pm-2:00pm (EDT) as Dr. Luc Evers (@luc_evers) and PhD candidate Erik Post present on work they’ve developed at the Center of Expertise for Parkinson and Movement Disorders, Radboud University Medical Center (Nijmegen, NL). Let us know if you would like to attend and we will share the calendar invite!
Recent Webinars
In case you missed them, we’ve hosted three webinars in 2026, covering topics including Parkinson’s disease research in admixed populations, the connection between soccer-induced head trauma and PD, and how neuroimaging techniques are being leveraged for earlier disease detection. You can access the recordings and read more via the links below!
- Performing analysis in admixed populations: lessons from LARGE-PD (@peixott, Cleveland Clinic)
- Associations Between Soccer Participation, TBI, and PDRD (@AnnaliseMiner, Boston University & @malosco, Boston University)
- Investigation of Surrogate Imaging Markers for Early Diagnosis and Risk Stratification in Parkinson’s Disease (@AmgadDroby, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center)
Task Force Updates
Our task forces are continuing their work to produce resources for PD researchers. These efforts rely on member contribution and we hope you’ll join one (or more) detailed below:
- Mentorship and Training - Led by: @psaffie & @malosco
- This task force is currently evaluating applications for the MJFF Training and Integrated Learning Support Grants. Thank you to all who applied! We are aiming to notify applicants of final decisions next week.
- Data Modality and Methodology - Led by: @ehutchins & @hirotaka
- As part of the Epi-Methods Interest Group within this task force, @fbbriggs shared the first installment in a series of epidemiology-focused resources. Check out the video here and let us know what you’d like to learn about!
- Visual Resource Generation - Led by: @vdardov & @paularp
- Thank you to those who provided feedback for the PD Symptom Wheel being developed by this task force! Refining this resource based on community input, this group is working on final versions which will be shared again on Discourse.
Resources and Ongoing Conversations
- @ecebayram, @Baikuntha_Panigrahi, @tiago.azevedo, and @fbbriggs discussed the effectiveness of various AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude in their research.
- @fbbriggs shared a Guide to Mentorship for Mentors and Mentees as a resource to support intentional and effective mentoring relationships.
- @ekaamewu asked about tools and best practices in citation management in broad literature reviews.
- @Baikuntha_Panigrahi is looking for a collaborator to work on the PPMI IPSC dataset for identifying novel pathways which predict cognitive decline in synucleinopathies.
Welcome New Members!
We encourage you to reach out to our new members and extend a warm welcome to the community! Some of our new members include:
- @Baikuntha_Panigrahi (All India Institute of Medical Sciences)
- @kaishi (Universiti Malaya)
- @jodyhesch (Hesch Consulting LLC)
- @Elainor (QIMR Berghofer)
- @bigbottle (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)
- @spfannenbecker (George Washington University)
- @Mpambo (Agakhan University Hospital)
That’s it for now – thanks for being members of our growing community. Please feel free to reach out with any questions, we look forward to hearing from you! If you know of colleagues or other researchers who would be interested in joining, feel free to direct them to https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/ where they can set up an account.