Gavin Mogan

Gavin Mogan Verified account @purposeful_pd · Oct 10

What resonates with me most about this is the self-glorification above actually putting suffering patients first. The millions spent in your institution could actually be used to treat the levodopa-starving. It’s not just U of Florida. It’s pervasive.

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Michael Okun Verified account @MichaelOkun · Oct 6

What resonates most with me about this work featured today in USA TODAY is how directly it connects two ideas I care deeply about: levodopa for all and food as medicine. Levodopa remains the most effective symptomatic treatment for Parkinson’s disease, yet access remains inadequate in many parts of the world; this UF/IFAS–Fixel collaboration asks whether agriculture can become part of the solution by harnessing velvet beans, which naturally produce unusually high levels of L-DOPA. Jeongim Kim and her team are studying how the plant makes and regulates L-DOPA; Kelly Balmant is sequencing the velvet bean genome and examining gene expression across cultivars; and the broader team including Adegbola Adesogan, Guodong David Liu, Eduardo Vallejos, Marjatta Eilitta along w/ our team at the Norman Fixel Institute is bringing agriculture, genetics, chemistry, engineering and Parkinson’s medicine together. They are even asking whether lessons from velvet beans could eventually increase naturally occurring L-DOPA in more familiar foods such as fava beans and soybeans. This is exactly what Food is Medicine should look like: not replacing proven Parkinson’s therapies, but using science, agriculture and innovation to explore scalable new ways to improve access and ultimately move us closer to the goal of levodopa for everyone who needs it, everywhere in the world.
usatodayspecial-va.newsmemory.com/?special=Food+… @UF @UF_IFAS

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Debb Aanonsen @debbAanonsen · Oct 9

@purposeful_pd Gavin, I have had dystonia from PD. Muscle contractions for the last 5 years - for the last 2 years they came 4x/week. I started taking Nuplazid (for PD hallucinations) 3 weeks ago and haven’t had one contraction! To go from daily to never is astounding! I want to tell everyone!

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Michael Okun Verified account @MichaelOkun · Oct 8

What resonates most with me about the exciting new Parkinson’s drug solengepras (CVN424) is that it represents a genuinely novel mechanism of action and a potential new addition to our treatment armamentarium. Rather than acting directly on dopamine, this once-daily medication blocks the GPR6 receptor in the brain’s indirect motor pathway, essentially easing the foot off the brain’s brake on movement. In the Phase 3 ARISE trial involving 341 people with Parkinson’s disease, the 150 mg dose reduced daily OFF time by 1.56 hours compared with 0.95 hours on placebo, a net benefit of approximately ~30-40 minutes per day, while also increasing good ON time without troublesome dyskinesia. These are modest but meaningful improvements, particularly for patients struggling with unpredictable motor fluctuations. The study also reported improvements in daily functioning, daytime sleepiness, and quality of life, although insomnia was more common (6.2% versus 0.9% with placebo). What excites me is not that this drug is a game changer for everyone, but that we are finally expanding beyond traditional dopamine-based approaches. Every additional treatment option matters, and even 30–40 minutes of better movement each day can make a difference for some people living with Parkinson’s. One important clarification: solengepras has not yet received FDA approval. These positive Phase 3 results are an encouraging step toward a potential regulatory submission, and we should celebrate the progress while awaiting full data and FDA review.

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