Third Symposium of Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Collaboration for Team Cragg

The Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative is an international collaborative research network that aims to accelerate discovery towards a cure for Parkinson’s disease. Since 2021, Professor Stephanie Cragg has led a major research award from ASAP to support a multi-year collaboration with co-investigators Professor Richard Wade-Martins (DPAG), Professor Peter Magill (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford), Professor Konstantinos Meletis (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm), and Dr Mark Howe (Boston University). Together, Team Cragg has been advancing this joint research programme, which is now entering its fifth year of collaboration.

Their shared goal is to understand striatal modulation of dopamine (DA) – acetylcholine (ACh) signalling, through both neuronal and non-neuronal mechanisms, and how this balance is disrupted in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The project spans two major aims: first, defining mechanistic interactions in healthy systems and how they differ between vulnerable and resilient striatal circuits; and second, uncovering how these interactions become disturbed during PD progression.

On 15–16 October, Team Cragg hosted the third in-person symposium of their ASAP Collaboration, bringing together researchers from Oxford, Karolinska, and Boston. Short presentations by early-career investigators showcased major advances across the project’s three core priorities: 1) understanding spatial and temporal heterogeneity in DA–ACh signalling, 2) uncovering the roles of astrocytes as key partners and, 3) exploring the influence of glycine receptors as newly recognized modulators of striatal function.

The team has revealed striking variations in DA–ACh dynamics using multifibre photometry, defining coordinated and opposing signals linked to specific movement phases. Parallel efforts have shown how astrocytes actively shape DA–ACh communication, while new molecular and electrophysiological data highlight novel glycine receptor subtypes that modulate dopamine and acetylcholine signalling and are altered in PD models. In addition, the development of new human in vitro platforms allows direct validation of mouse findings and causal testing of mechanisms across species.

Collaboration was at the heart of the symposium, with creative workshops sparking lively discussions and shaping new ways to integrate emerging findings across labs. The first day concluded with a memorable dinner at Christ Church College, where the ringing of the bells marked the start of the academic year. Looking ahead, the team is excited to continue this partnership and to share forthcoming manuscripts that will advance understanding of Parkinson’s disease and its underlying neuromodulatory mechanisms.