Motivated by a friend’s suffering from Parkinson’s, Dr. Sackner-Bernstein focused on a gap in our understanding of the disease: no one had so far measured the amount of dopamine in the dopaminergic neurons of people with Parkinson’s. This is critically important because he believes dopamine is toxic to these cells, which would then be a driver of neuron dysfunction and death, leading to disease progression.

He published his analysis last summer in the Journal of Parkinson’s disease showing that these critical neurons do not lack dopamine – they have excess dopamine. This led him to design a clinical trial to test a drug that addresses this newly defined mechanism of disease.

Please see the following article for more information:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/could-all-the-experts-be-wrong-about-parkinsons-301308244.html

Dr. Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein was a renowned clinical trialist in cardiology before leaving academics to pursue medical product development, including drug, device and biologic therapeutics.

He served as associate director of the FDA’s device center, where he led diverse programs highlighted by the White House’s first Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program, the Center’s innovation initiative that led to the Breakthrough Devices program and a collaboration between FDA and DARPA to develop systems and products for the Medical Countermeasures Program (focused on responses to chemical, biologic and radiologic mass casualty events).

After serving at the FDA, Jonathan consulted for DARPA, with responsibilities including regulatory strategy and commercial transition of their programs/projects. Jonathan supported the launch of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office, with a primary focus on neuroscience and big data programs.

Jonathan’s academic experience ranges from First-in-Human to international trials, as a clinical investigator and trial leader. Sackner-Bernstein held academic appointments in cardiology at Columbia University and North Shore LIJ Health System (Northwell) following training at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr Sackner-Bernstein: Parkinson's - what if I discovered the Silver Bullet?