In a study using blood samples of patients with Parkinson’s disease and a control group, the research team, led by graduate research assistant Adithya Gopinath and Habibeh Khoshbouei, Pharm.D., Ph.D., unexpectedly observed that monocytes of people with Parkinson’s expressed significantly greater amounts of tyrosine hydroxylase, or TH, per monocyte, a type of white blood cell, than those of healthy controls, according to the paper.

In addition, the team reported that an inflammatory substance called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, appears to be linked to a rise in TH expression in human monocytes. TNF has previously been shown to be increased in the brain and peripheral circulation of people with Parkinson’s disease.

Collaborating with the labs of Malú Tansey, Ph.D., co-director of UF’s Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, and Michael Okun, M.D., executive director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health, the team further described that by inhibiting TNF with an experimental drug, XPro1595, TH levels in monocytes return to normal, thus showing a link between inflammation and TH levels in monocytes. XPro1595, or pegipanermin, was co-invented by Tansey and is currently being tested separately in a Phase 1b clinical trial led by INmune Bio and funded by the Alzheimer’s Association.

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It’s a big job, managing grants, directing clinical trials, writing journal articles, courting donors and countless other things.

At home, he and his wife have three young boys of their own to raise.

So when he was approached about also applying to be the director of UF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, he could have been forgiven for saying he had too much on his plate.

Instead he jumped at the opportunity.

“I was so impressed by the University of Florida’s commitment when we came here from Duke eight years ago, that I saw this as an opportunity to take some of what we’ve learned about using the extraordinary translational research capabilities of the university and contribute in a more meaningful way to helping the institution as a whole continue to develop and to elevate those capabilities in ways that will benefit not only my own research program but open up opportunities for other programs,” Mitchell says.

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