China will have half of newly-diagnosed Parkinson’s disease cases in the next decade: Nobel Laureate

Nobel Laureate Randy Schekman on Saturday said that China would have over half of newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease cases in the next decade.

Speaking at the 2025 Infosys Prize ceremony, Dr. Schekman, who is a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, said the burden of Parkinson disease and other neurodegenerative conditions is growing.

“It (Parkinson’s) is a challenge around the world like the pandemic, it knows no boundaries. It is estimated that in the next decade China will have over half of new cases of Parkinson’s disease diagnosed. It is not because of better diagnosis, maybe because of environmental concerns,” Dr. Schekman said.

He said that in 2005, there were 4.1 million individuals who had Parkinson’s of whom 48% were from China, 20% from Europe, 8% from India and the U.S., 4% from Brazil, and others made up for 12% of the cases.

In 2030, it is estimated that 8.7 million individuals will be affected, of which 57% will be from China, 14% from Europe, 8% from India, 7% from the U.S., 4% from Brazil, and 10% others.

Dr. Schekman also spoke about his late wife Nancy Walls’ struggle with Parkinson’s disease and how it affected his family.

He also highlighted the work by Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) which aims to build out a research roadmap which identifies large scale, innovative solutions to address key knowledge gaps in the fundamental understanding of how Parkinson’s disease develops and progresses.

“We have five more years of this programme. We have breakthroughs that have identified targets that I am confident that the pharmaceutical industry will embrace in finding cures that are more effective, and when i walk away from this programme in five years, i will leave behind some confidence in breakthroughs that will make a difference in the lives of those affected with these diseases,” he said.

Dr. Schekman also gave away the Infosys Prize 2025 to the winners on the occasion.

The prize is awarded in six categories and the winners in each category are Nikhil Agarwal (Economics), Sushant Sachdeva (Engineering and Computer Science), Andrew Ollett (Humanities and Social Sciences), Anjana Badrinarayanan (Life Sciences), Sabyasachi Mukherjee (Mathematical Sciences), and Karthish Manthiram (Physical Sciences).

The prize for each category comprises a gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of $100,000 (or, its equivalent in rupees).