$3M federal grant will allow study of protein causing Parkinson’s dementia

Colorado State University team to target distinct variant of alpha-synuclein

Written by Andrea Lobo | Oct. 1, 2026

• A $3 million federal grant will fund new research into how a distinct variant of the alpha-synuclein protein contributes to Parkinson’s disease dementia.
• The National Institutes of Health award allows scientists from Colorado State University to build on their earlier work in a mouse model of the disease. 
• The team is aiming to develop better diagnostic tools and future disease-halting therapies for people with Parkinson's.

A team at Colorado State University (CSU) has been awarded $3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate how a distinct variant of the alpha-synuclein protein — which can build up into toxic clumps in the brain — contributes to Parkinson’s disease with dementia.

The federal grant will allow the university’s researchers to study how this variant spreads through the nervous system. The team’s ultimate goal is to develop therapies to stop the disease’s progression, according to a university news story announcing the funding.

The five-year project, led by Amanda Woerman, PhD, an associate professor at CSU, will build on the team’s previous identification of a unique alpha-synuclein variant in a person with Parkinson’s disease dementia. The researchers will now try to determine how this variant may contribute to the disease’s progression — potentially informing future diagnostic and treatment approaches.

“We’re getting closer to understanding what drives these types of diseases,” Woerman said. “If we can learn how this specific variant causes Parkinson’s with dementia, it will help us better understand what we need to do to successfully intervene and stop the disease.”