CND Life Sciences Announces NIH Grant to Study the Risk of Parkinson's Disease in Patients with Essential Tremor
The grant will fund a three-year multicenter study performed in collaboration with major medical centers and key opinion leaders around the U.S.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CND Life Sciences (CND), a medical technology company pioneering the development of cutaneous neurodiagnostic tests and associated biomarker services, today announced that it has been awarded a $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to determine if the presence of the protein phosphorylated alpha-synuclein (P-SYN) in patients with essential tremor (ET) predicts the likelihood of developing Parkinson's disease (PD). The company's Syn-One Test® will be studied as a predictive tool to help assess which patients may be at risk for developing PD. Outcomes from the "Syn-T Study" could have major implications for the treatment and management of people with ET in the future.
"This is our fourth NIH-SBIR grant award over the last five years and a real testament to our scientific foundation and proven ability to bring important neurodiagnostic innovations from bench to bedside," said Todd Levine, MD, chief medical officer and co-founder of CND. "The Syn-T Study is particularly meaningful for the neurodegeneration field and CND. There are an estimated seven million people in the U.S. with ET,1 and the risk of developing PD can be significantly higher in people with ET than in the general population.2 Patients and physicians want a better understanding as to the cause of the tremor, and results from this study may bring the clarity they need."
The goal of this three-year multicenter study is to determine whether individuals diagnosed with ET have P-SYN, the misfolded protein that is linked to PD, and whether this protein increases the risk of PD development. ET is an involuntary rhythmic shaking, most often seen in a person's hands, arms, legs, and head, which can impact quality of life and lead to disability. This common neurologic disease affects more than five percent of people over the age of 651 and is associated with an increased risk of phenoconverting into PD.3
Approximately 300 participants will be involved in the study, and recruitment and enrollment are expected to begin in December 2025. It will be conducted at 15 participating sites across the U.S. under the direction of three key organizations: Baylor University Medical Center and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and coordinated with Drs. Joseph Jankovic, Elan Louis, and Ludy Shih, respectively.
The study will entail using the Syn-One Test, a skin biopsy test that provides accurate pathological evidence to aid in the diagnostic evaluation of 'at-risk' patients with clinical features suggestive of a synucleinopathy like PD. Researchers will use this simple in-office skin punch biopsy procedure to measure the presence of P-SYN in cutaneous nerve fibers of ET patients.
"Using this technology, we aim to prove that individuals with ET who have positive Syn-One Test results are significantly more likely to develop PD," said Christopher Gibbons, MD, FAAN, chief scientific officer and co-founder of CND, professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and principal investigator of the study. "Additionally, we would like to demonstrate that the rate of pathological alpha-synuclein accumulation correlates with progression to PD. Doing so will provide physicians with valuable insight into how the disease progresses and give them, and their patients, the necessary assurance to guide their recommended treatment plan."
Dr. Gibbons and his team also believe that early identification could lead to early intervention as the industry moves toward the development of novel therapies that may someday be available to treat the underlying disease. In order to create new therapies, physicians need to: 1) detect the disease at its earliest stage, 2) start neuroprotective treatments as soon as possible, when they might be more effective, and 3) increase targeted monitoring and care to ensure the right treatment is given to the right patient.
About CND Life Sciences
CND Life Sciences supports the care of patients facing the potential diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease. Operating a CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory in Scottsdale, Arizona, CND offers the Syn-One Test as a laboratory developed test (LDT) to help clinicians diagnose synucleinopathies that include Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, multiple system atrophy, and other related disorders. Syn-One uses proprietary techniques to detect phosphorylated alpha-synuclein in cutaneous nerves while also measuring other signs of peripheral nerve degeneration. Results of a prospective, multicenter NIH-sponsored study of the Syn-One Test were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2024 demonstrating >95% sensitivity overall in patients clinically diagnosed with one of four synucleinopathies and confirmed by an expert panel.4 More than 3,000 neurologists and other clinicians have used the Syn-One Test to support their diagnostic evaluation of patients. The company also collaborates with biopharmaceutical companies on clinical trials for investigational therapies and is conducting studies on early disease detection and synuclein quantification. The Syn-One Test has been designated as a Breakthrough Device by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for aiding the diagnosis of synucleinopathies in patients aged 40 years and older with neurologic conditions that present with clinical features suggestive of a synucleinopathy. The FDA's Breakthrough Devices Program is intended to expedite the development and review of medical devices that may provide for more effective treatment or diagnosis for a life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating condition. For more information, visit cndlifesciences.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.
Disclosure: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44NS143486. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Media Contact:
Jaryd Leady
(856) 803-7855
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Company Contact:
Jennifer Whitney
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References
1 Elias WJ, Shah BB. Essential tremor. JAMA. 2024;332(5):418-419. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.7475.
2 Minen MT, Louis ED. Emergence of Parkinson's Disease in Essential Tremor: A Study of the Clinical Correlates in 53 Patients. Mov Disord. 2008 Aug 15;23(11):1602–1605. doi:10.1002/mds.22161.
3 Louis ED, Berry D, Ghanem A, et al. Conversion Rate of Essential Tremor to Essential Tremor Parkinson Disease. Neurology Clin Practice, 2023;13(3). doi.org/10.1212/CPJ.0000000000200162.
4 Gibbons CH, Levine T, Adler C, et al. Skin biopsy detection of phosphorylated α-synuclein in patients with synucleinopathies. JAMA. 2024;331(15):1298–1306. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.0792.
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