SPPIN Team Received Claude Pompidou Prize for Breakthrough Method in Early Parkinson’s Detection

Members of the Brain Biophysics team and shared SPPIN staff who participated in the research.

Translation of the press release from the Claude Pompidou Foundation for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases:

For its 13th edition, the Claude Pompidou Prize, worth €100,000, recognized the work of the “Biophysics of the brain” team at the CNRS-SPPIN, Saints-Pères Paris Institute for the Neurosciences at Université Paris Cité, led by Martin Oheim.

Among neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s disease (168,000 people affected in France) is a motor disorder characterized by the destruction of certain neurons in the brain. The hypothesis of an enteric origin of Parkinson’s disease, first proposed in the early 2000s, has since been supported by numerous observations. Pathogens are thought to cross the intestinal barrier and come into contact with neurons in the nervous system of the intestine, often described as a second brain.

Dr. Oheim and his team have successfully developed a method for 3D imaging of the intestinal wall without prior labeling, using a fast two-photon microscope and tissue transparency techniques developed and patented by their laboratory.

The Foundation Prize now gives them the means to acquire a new-generation laser, enabling three-dimensional imaging of the intestinal nervous system through observation of endogenous fluorescence and contrast generated by a complex optical process. The Prize will also enable the purchase of a powerful computer for image calculation and reconstruction, and an upgrade of the data storage and backup infrastructure.

Detailed analysis of alterations in the intestinal wall will now make it possible, in a way that has never been done before, to gather valuable information on the early signs of the disease and contribute to its diagnosis.

The Foundation warmly congratulates the winner and thanks its donors for their continued generosity!

At the awards ceremony, Dr. Oheim thanked the foundation and particularly emphasized the need for public research funding.