Hi everyone, below is the content of the August Data Community Newsletter we sent out via email on September 28th. Let us know if you didn’t receive it, or if you have topics you’d like to see in future newsletters!
September 2026 Data Community Newsletter
New Funding Opportunity!
We’re excited to announce that the Mentorship and Training Task Force has released a call for proposals for a second round of Training and Integrated Learning Support Awards. Up to 5 project proposals ($5,000 each) may be awarded (deadline for submitting proposals is November 13, 2026). Click here to learn more and apply!
Conference Attendance & Presentations
Are you planning to attend the MDS Congress this October 4-8 in Seoul, Korea? Let us know in this thread and connect with other community members ahead of time!
Have you recently given a talk or presented a poster at a conference? You can share your slides, recordings, or other resources in this quarterly thread.
MJFF Data Community Webinar
Are you a movement disorder specialist trying to stay up-to-date with the latest findings in the field? Are you unable to attend the 2026 MDS Congress (October 4-8) but want to learn about important updates that come out of the conference? If so, we hope you join us on Monday, October 19th, 12:30-1:00pm (EST) as Dr. Amgad Droby (Tel Aviv Medical Center & The Feinstein Institutes; @AmgadDroby) provides a detailed briefing on conference outcomes and what it means for PD research going forward. Click here to sign up!
Have you experienced impostor syndrome during your academic or research career? In our latest webinar, we had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Ece Bayram (Assistant Professor of Neurology at CU Anschutz School of Medicine; @ecebayram) and Dr. Ana Jimena Hernández-Medrano (Clinical Research Specialist at Parkinson’s Foundation; @anajimenahdz) as they held a discussion on how to best manage and overcome this common experience. Click here to read more and access the webinar recording.
Member Highlight - Andrew Jacobs Bilson, PharmD
Continuing with our monthly community member highlights, we hope this will be an opportunity for you to learn more about your fellow community members, the work they’re doing, and what collaboration opportunities there may be.
This month, we’re delighted to highlight Dr. Andrew Jacobs Bilson (@ajbilson), a GP2 trainee and current PhD candidate at Tulane University, as he explores the broader connections between aging, neurodegeneration, and health. Click here to learn more!
Task Forces - Open to New Members!
Our community hosts 4 task forces which were created to both address community needs as well as produce resources for the PD research community at large. These efforts rely on member contribution and we hope you’ll join one (or more) detailed below:
- Mentorship and Training - Led by: @psaffie & @malosco
- Join this group if you are interested in designing materials and mentorship programs aimed at training the next generation of PD scientists.
- Data Modality and Methodology - Led by: @ehutchins & @hirotaka
- If you are interested in developing tools and resources to address data-specific needs, we hope you join this task force!
- Networking and Outreach - Led by: @Vidash & @ecebayram
- Join this task force if you are interested in growing both the quantity and quality of meaningful connections in our community.
- Visual Resource Generation - Led by: @vdardov & @ekaamewu
- Paula put out a call for volunteers to join this task force’s efforts to contribute to a systematic review of the PD literature landscape. Click here to read more and join!
We are always interested in supporting community-led efforts. If there is another task force you are interested in leading or assessing community interest in, please let us know by reaching out to researchcommunity@michaeljfox.org or by completing the programming suggestion form.
Resources and Ongoing Conversations
- @tiago.azevedo started a discussion on the best way to match SOMAScan sequence IDs to gene IDs.
- @hirotaka shared a new cohort variable (and associated script) to help interpret a given participant’s enrollment criteria in PPMI.
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:
- @manisha (Neuromatch)
- @fmapar (Mass General Brigham)
- @RosarioHuaranca (Strasbourg University)
- @apwaung (Nanyang Technological University)
- @mlabbe (University College Dublin)
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 (rcop.michaeljfox.org) where they can set up an account.