2020 Spring/Summer Highlights of Hope

RESEARCH
10 RESEARCH TRENDS WE’RE EXCITED TO
WATCH IN THE NEXT DECADE
With a new decade comes a new world of possibility, and
innovation waiting to be unleashed in labs at Van Andel
Institute and across the globe. As we take our first steps into the
2020s, here are 10 promising research trends to keep an eye on
now and in the coming years.
Our understanding of Parkinson’s disease will continue to
evolve, spurring new research and breakthroughs
Parkinson’s disease has long been considered a movement-related
disorder that originates in the brain. Recent research, however,
suggests that Parkinson’s disease might represent a group of
closely related disorders. While they share key clinical features,
they may have roots in different anatomical locations, such as the
gut and nose. Even if the anatomical starting points differ, there is
evidence that cell metabolism, inflammation and poor handling of
certain proteins are common features. In the coming years, these
insights could lead to the development of new therapies to slow or
stop its progression.
Breakthroughs in common diseases like Parkinson’s, dementia
with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer’s might help us better
understand rare disorders
It’s become increasingly clear that an improved understanding of
one disease may provide new insights into another. For rare and
understudied diseases like multiple system atrophy, this provides
a particularly important opportunity to gain the insight required to
develop new diagnostics and treatments.
Inflammation will increasingly be linked to disease — and give
rise to new treatments
Inflammation is a normal part of the immune system, responsible
for marshalling resources to the site of a wound, infection or
disease (like cancer) to help the body fight back. When inflammation
remains longer than needed, it can cause or contribute to a host of
health problems. Researchers are hard at work sorting out exactly
how and why this happens, which could be the findings that serve
as the foundation for new therapies for cancer, neurodegenerative
diseases, depression and many others.
Understanding how the body processes, uses and stores
energy will be critically important
Metabolism powers every aspect of the human body, from
keeping the immune system running to ensuring our hearts have
enough energy to beat. We’ve known for some time that metabolic
dysfunction plays a central role in diseases like diabetes and even
in cancer, thanks to malignant cells’ voracious appetites for energy.
But new breakthroughs also have linked issues with metabolism
to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s,
among others. As we better understand our bodies’ incredibly
complex web of metabolic processes, it’s likely that we will continue
to find metabolism at the center of many disorders — and many
future treatments.
Cancer treatment will harness combinations of medications
designed to give cancer a one-two punch
We now know that cancer comprises more than 100 different
diseases, each with its own litany of subtypes (for example, breast
cancers can be defined based on the presence or absence of
certain molecular receptors). This expansive diversity means that
there is likely no silver bullet cure. Instead, we can expect to see
more combination therapies that utilize multiple medications
whose effects complement or enhance each other’s ability to fight
cancers. A prime example is pairing an immunotherapy drug,
which bolsters the body’s natural defenses against cancer, with
an epigenetic drug that makes cancer cells more recognizable,
more susceptible to immune attack, and is thought to reinvigorate
exhausted immune cells and get them back in the fight.
We will better understand how the health and diet of one
generation can affect the next
Can a parent’s diet, experiences and lifestyle impact their children?
Or subsequent generations? Mounting evidence suggests that
nutrition does indeed have a ripple effect across generations, even
altering individuals’ predisposition to disease. Efforts are underway
to better understand how nutrition and other environmental
factors reprogram the genome and epigenome, and how this
information traverses generations. The goal: developing ways
to prevent and treat diseases including diabetes, cancer, and
Parkinson’s, and to protect our children from the unwanted
consequences of our own lifestyles.
We will see the translation of structural findings into
actionable therapies
Structural biology seeks to determine the shape and architecture
of life’s smallest building blocks, such as proteins. These efforts
are vitally important, helping us understand in intricate chemical
detail how the body works and laying the earliest foundations for
new medications. In the past five years, there has been a boom
in structural research, based on technological advances in cryoelectron
microscopy (cryo-EM), a technique that helps scientists
view molecules down to the atomic level. In the next decade, we will
continue to build on these foundational discoveries, which could
give rise to new treatments.
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