Hi everyone, below is the content of the May Data Community Newsletter we sent out via email on May 15th. Let us know if you didn’t receive it, or if you have topics you’d like to see in future newsletters!
May 2026 Data Community Newsletter
Upcoming Conference
Will you be attending the Parkinson’s World Congress this month in Phoenix, Arizona? A few of our community champions will be in attendance, including @ehutchins (DataTecnica), @Vidash (Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital), and @psaffie (Clinica Santa María). Let us know in this thread if you’re attending and are interested in connecting!
Recent Webinars
In case you missed them, we recently held two community webinars, dealing with topics such as open-source software for wearables data, as well as how to get the most out of the MDS rating scales. You can access the recordings and read more via the links below!
- From real-life wearable data to digital biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease: introducing the ParaDigMa toolbox (@luc_evers & Erik Post, Radboud University Medical Center)
- Getting the best out of MDS scales (@ecebayram (University of Colorado) & @MubasherQ (King’s College London))
Do you have ideas or suggestions for other webinar topics you would like to see? Let us know by leaving your thoughts in this thread: Seeking Webinar Ideas and Requests from the Community.
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
- We recently announced the winners of the MJFF Training and Integrated Learning Support Awards! Read more about the specific projects here.
- Data Modality and Methodology - Led by: @ehutchins & @hirotaka
- @cameronreidhamilton shared an update to the Parkinson’s Insight Engine (PIE), an open-source Python toolbox designed to streamline access to and analysis of PPMI data.
Resources and Ongoing Conversations
- @MYSchmidt asked about identifying individuals with orthostatic hypertension within the Fox Insight microbiome sub-study, which @mattk and @ecebayram were able to support.
- @Luca inquired as to the best way to select and download MR images from PPMI, as well as how to match subject IDs.
- @vselvaggi surfaced issues scoring Neurobooster genotyped samples, which @kathrynstep was able to help with.
- @dicara is looking for collaborators interested in working on a project investigating lipid metabolism and disease state in humans. If interested, reach out to @dicara either via direct message or in the above thread!
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:
- @Benjamin_Adebisi (Institute of Anatomy Cell Biology Brain and Neurodegeneration)
- @Clara (Faculty of Medicine, Fianarantsoa)
- @Bradley_S (Abbvie)
- @jnaleway (Sonas Biotechnologies, Inc.)
- @tom_johnston (Atuka, Inc.)
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 this forum (https://rcop.michaeljfox.org/) where they can set up an account.