Lawson Health Research Institute and Stemcell Technologies have signed a license agreement giving Stemcell global exclusive rights to commercialize novel tools for Parkinson’s disease research.

Lawson is the research institute of London Health Sciences Center and St. Joseph’s Health Care London, and works in partnership with Western University.

A team led by Dr. Matthew Hebb, a neurosurgeon-researcher at Lawson and Western University’s Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, has been developing innovative strategies to study Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s is the second-most common neurodegenerative disorder, after Alzheimer’s disease, affecting as many as 10 million people around the world. It is characterized by progressive neurological impairment that produces tremor, slowness of movement, impaired balance, muscle rigidity, cognitive decline and other medical disturbances. The symptoms are caused by the death of cells in the nervous system, including those that generate dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter that sends signals between nerve cells. Although specific gene mutations have been identified in a minority of patients, there is no known cause in most individuals. There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s.