An observational study in Parkinson Disease, sponsored by Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Recruiting at 50 sites in 12 countries. Open to participants aged 30 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-27.
Sponsored by Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research · Observational
The Parkinson Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) is a longitudinal, observational, multi-center natural history study to assess progression of clinical features, digital outcomes, and imaging, biologic and genetic markers of Parkinson's disease (PD) progression in study participants with manifest PD, prodromal PD, and healthy controls.
The overall goal of PPMI is to identify markers of disease progression for use in clinical trials of therapies to reduce progression of PD disability.
PPMI is a broad program, expanding the goals of the original PPMI study, that includes this PPMI Clinical protocol, as well as other program initiatives such as the PPMI Remote, PPMI Digital App and PPMI Online protocols. Participants in PPMI may be asked to be enrolled in other PPMI program protocols, but depending on their method of recruitment, participants may be enrolled sequentially in varying order, as appropriate. PPMI participants may also be asked to participate in additional PPMI program initiatives (as they are developed), which may only involve a subset of PPMI participants based on their cohort designation and/or site location.
In PPMI Clinical up to 4,500 participants will be enrolled and followed longitudinally from approximately 50-55 international clinical sites across a variety of cohorts, including healthy controls, Parkinson disease, PD manifesting gene carriers, and Prodromal (those at risk for developing PD).
7.1 Healthy Controls (HC) Note: Active Healthy controls previously enrolled in PPMI do not require re-assessment of eligibility criteria listed below for enrollment in PPMI Clinical. Active participants do need to be able to provide informed consent for PPMI Clinical participation (includes use of a designated research proxy).
7.1.1 Inclusion Criteria (HC)
Either is male, or is female and meets additional criteria below, as applicable:
7.1.2 Exclusion Criteria (HC)
7.2 Parkinson's Disease (PD) Note: Active PD participants previously enrolled in PPMI do not require re-assessment of eligibility criteria listed below for enrollment in PPMI Clinical. Active participants do need to be able to provide informed consent for PPMI Clinical participation (includes use of a designated research proxy).
7.2.1 Inclusion Criteria (PD)
Either is male, or is female and meets additional criteria below, as applicable:
7.2.2 Exclusion Criteria (PD)
7.3 Parkinson's Disease (PD) with LRRK2 or GBA variant Note: Active PD participants previously enrolled in PPMI do not require re-assessment of eligibility criteria listed below for enrollment in PPMI Clinical. Active participants do need to be able to provide informed consent for PPMI Clinical participation (includes use of a designated research proxy).
7.3.1 Inclusion Criteria (PD ¬- LRRK2 or GBA)
Either is male, or is female and meets additional criteria below, as applicable:
7.3.2 Exclusion Criteria (PD - LRRK2 or GBA)
7.4 Parkinson's Disease (PD) with SNCA or rare genetic variant Note: Active PD participants previously enrolled in PPMI do not require re-assessment of eligibility criteria listed below for enrollment in PPMI clinical. Active participants do need to be able to provide informed consent for PPMI Clinical participation (includes use of a designated research proxy).
7.4.1 Inclusion Criteria (PD - SNCA or rare genetic variant (such as Parkin or Pink1))
Either is male, or is female and meets additional criteria below, as applicable:
7.4.2 Exclusion Criteria (PD - SNCA or rare genetic variant (such as Parkin or Pink1))
7.5 Prodromal Note: Active Prodromal participants previously enrolled in PPMI do not require re-assessment of eligibility criteria listed below for enrollment in PPMI Clinical. Active participants do need to be able to provide informed consent for PPMI Clinical participation (includes use of a designated research proxy).
The specific predictive eligibility criteria for participants recruited through PPMI Remote to advance to PPMI Clinical will be iteratively optimized based on data collected from these studies.
7.5.1 Inclusion criteria (Prodromal)
For Screening:
Confirmation that participant is eligible based on centrally determined predictive criteria including the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT).
Additionally, confirmation of UPSIT eligibility during the Screening visit prior to SPECT Imaging.
Either is male, or is female and meets additional criteria below, as applicable:
For continuation to Baseline visit and ongoing follow-up:
Confirmation that participant is eligible based on *Screening SPECT imaging.
Based on the results of the SPECT imaging test, Prodromal participants eligible to continue their participation in PPMI Clinical will be asked to return for their PPMI Clinical baseline visit. Neither the participant nor the site investigator will be made aware of the participant's DAT status during the study.
7.5.2 Exclusion Criteria (Prodromal)
In PPMI Clinical up to 4,500 participants will be enrolled and followed longitudinally once identified, over the course of 5-8 years.
Establish standardized protocols for acquisition, transfer and analysis of clinical, digital, imaging, biologic and genetic data that can be used by the PD research community.
This protocol will build on the existing PPMI infrastructure
Time frame: Baseline to 156 months
Comprehensive and uniformly acquired dataset
Develop a comprehensive and uniformly acquired clinical, digital and imaging dataset and repository of biological and genetic samples that would be available to the PD research community to test hypotheses of the underlying molecular pathobiology of PD, enable modeling of PD progression to identify clinical and/or data driven PD progression sub-sets, and inform studies testing PD therapeutics (for examples, clinical trials targeting synuclein, LRRK2, GBA as well as other targets)
Time frame: Baseline to 156 months
Comparison between Rates of Change
Use clinical and biological data to estimate the mean rates of change and the variability around the mean of clinical, digital, imaging, biological and genetic outcomes in study participants with PD diagnosis (including patients with a LRRK2, GBA, SNCA or rare genetic variants (such as Parkin or Pink1) and individuals with prodromal Parkinson's disease (including individuals with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD)), olfactory loss, LRRK2, GBA, SNCA or rare genetic variants (such as Parkin or Pink1) and/or other risk factors for PD with and without dopamine transporter (DAT) deficit and in healthy participants.
Time frame: Study intervals ranging from 3 months to 156 months
Prevalence of measures of clinical, imaging and biomic outcomes in various subsets
Confirm existing and identify novel clinical, digital, imaging, biologic and genetic PD progression markers to identify quantitative individual measures or combinations of measures that demonstrate optimum interval change in study participants with PD diagnosis (including patients with a LRRK2, GBA, SNCA or rare genetic variants (such as Parkin or Pink1)) and individuals with prodromal Parkinson's disease (including individuals with RBD, olfactory loss, a LRRK2, GBA, SNCA or rare genetic variants (such as Parkin or Pink1) and/or other risk factors for PD with and without DAT deficit in comparison to healthy controls or in sub-sets of study participants with PD diagnosis or prodromal PD defined by baseline assessments, progression milestones and/or rate of clinical, digital, imaging, biologic and genetic change, or other measures.
Time frame: study intervals ranging from baseline to 156 months.
Establish the probability of phenoconversion to PD
Evaluate the probability of phenoconversion to PD for individuals with prodromal PD enrolled in the prodromal cohorts (including individuals with RBD, olfactory loss, a LRRK2, GBA, SNCA or rare genetic variants (such as Parkin or Pink1) and/ or other risk factors for PD with and without DAT deficit).
Time frame: study intervals ranging from baseline to 156 months.
Plan to share: Undecided
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research