The University of Michigan has been awarded a five-year, $11.7 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) to re-establish a Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson’s Disease Research.
The U-M team of clinician-researchers is led by Roger Albin, Anne B. Young Collegiate Professor of Neurology, co-director of the Movement Disorders Division, and director of the U-M Parkinson’s Foundation Research Center of Excellence.
NINDS previously funded the U-M Udall Center from 2015-20. There are five Udall Centers nationwide, established in memory of the late U.S. Rep. Morris K. Udall of Arizona, who died from Parkinson’s disease in 1998.
Up to 70 percent of patients with Parkinson disease fall each year, quadrupling the rate of hip fractures, leading to extended hospitalizations, increased use of skilled nursing facilities and eventual nursing home placement and increasing the risk of death.