Michael J. Fox and Sergey Brin Take Their Push for a Parkinson’s Cure to the Next Level

“There was nothing I could do to help her and nothing I could do to prepare, because the disease progresses in ways that are quite different,” Schekman recalls. “There is no way to plan ahead.” So when a representative from the family office of Google co-founder called on him shortly after his wife’s death to see if he was interested in helping establish a vast program to find the cause of Parkinson’s, it resonated. Now Schekman and molecular biologist are helping lead a new Brin-sponsored initiative called . Started quietly right before the pandemic, it’s become one of the biggest funders of Parkinson’s research in the world. The organization is working hand in hand with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, named after the Back to the Future actor with the disease.