Montara Therapeutics has secured roughly $1 million from The Michael J Fox Foundation to develop a brain-targeted approach to Parkinson's disease. The strategy uses existing mTOR inhibitors — drugs linked to longevity research — paired with a proprietary blocker that prevents the drug from acting outside the brain. This matters because mTOR suppression triggers autophagy, the cell's clean-up process that clears toxic protein buildup linked to Parkinson's progression. Until now, systemic side effects like immune suppression have blocked this approach from clinical use. Montara's BrainOnly platform aims to solve that. The funded research will test drug combinations in lab models to identify the safest, most effective candidates for clearing alpha-synuclein, the protein that damages neurons in Parkinson's.
