Hi everyone, below is the content of the October Data Community Newsletter we sent out via email on November 5th. Let us know if you didn’t receive it, or if you have topics you’d like to see in future newsletters!
November 2025 Data Community Newsletter
Knowing Me, Knowing You
The Networking and Outreach Task Force is launching a Knowing Me, Knowing You program, designed to help Parkinson’s researchers connect beyond their projects and titles. The goal of this program is to build stronger relationships, foster collaboration, and strengthen our community by getting to know the people behind the science. If interested, please fill out this short survey (3 questions, ~1 minute) to help us shape the program in a way that best supports you. Read more and join the discussion here!
Training Grants
The Mentorship and Training Task Force is soliciting proposals to support training and integrated learning initiatives. Two proposals for $3,750 each (direct costs) will be awarded. This funding mechanism is intended to support early career stage investigators conducting multidisciplinary research on Parkinson’s disease using MJFF data sets including but not limited to those found here. To learn more or submit your application, check out the thread here.
Community Programming
Are you a non-clinical researcher working with Parkinson’s disease data? Have you been struggling to tie your research back to the patient experience? If so, join us for our next community webinar on Thursday, November 20th, 12:30pm-1:30pm (ET), where we will hear from Dr. Ana Jimena Hernández-Medrano (@anajimenahdz, International Laboratory for Human Genome Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico) on how to conduct patient-centered research in the age of big data. If interested, let us know in this Discourse thread and we’ll send you an invite!
Have you ever wondered about the link between sports, head trauma, and Parkinson’s? Do you (or are you interested in) working with Fox Insight data in your Parkinson’s disease research? If so, join us for a community webinar on Monday, December 8th, 12:30-1:30pm (ET), as we hear from PhD candidate @AnnaliseMiner and @malosco on their current research at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. If you’d like to attend, indicate your interest in this Discourse thread!
In case you missed our October webinar, we heard from a panel of illustrators and scientists as they highlighted tools and principles for effective posters and talks. You can access the recording here. Thank you to our panelists (@ecebayram, @ekaamewu and Mauricio Araiza (Altamira Studio)) and our moderator (@paularp) for an insightful discussion!
Resources and Ongoing Conversations
- @luc_evers shared his work on ParaDigMa, an open-source toolbox for deriving PD digital biomarkers from real-life wrist sensor data.
- @apinstein and @anajimenahdz discussed a proposed project to develop diagnosis tracking / phenoconversion events in PPMI.
- @ecebayram continued a discussion on advice for selecting the right journal for your publication.
- @paularp shared her thoughts on journal clubs and highlighting interesting papers to share with colleagues.
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:
- @Kenlizzette (National University of Colombia)
- @noalev (Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center)
- @Debimpe (Federal Medical Center, Owo)
- @klposton (Stanford University)
- @efernandez (University of Concepcion)
Do you know of other funding opportunities or programs you’d like to share with the community? Check out our quarterly post where members can share funding opportunities, publications, and/or conference presentations.
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.
Data Community Innovators in Hawaii at MDS 2025 (left to right: @psaffie, @Vidash, @paularp, @ecebayram, @hirotaka)