By Todd Taylor
MBI investigators Zachary Sorrentino, M.D., Ph.D., and Adithya Gopinath, Ph.D., are winners of 2025 Toffler Scholars Awards for researchers whose early-stage projects hold potential to drive meaningful scientific breakthroughs.
Sorrentino was awarded $50,000 for research into how Lewy body-associated alpha-synuclein pathology drives neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease and the development of targeted therapies to slow or prevent its progression.
“I think the key to treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders will lie in biomarkers for early identification and subtyping, and then subsequent delivery of targeted and powerful therapies to select brain regions to halt progression without systemic side effects,” said Sorrentino, an MBI Gator NeuroScholar and a UF neurosurgery resident.
Gopinath was awarded $35,000 for his studies in the immune involvement of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and other disorders characterized by disrupted dopamine signaling, with the goal of developing novel therapeutics.
“With increasing awareness that brain diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and substance use disorders, can impact the rest of the body, including the immune system, it’s critical that we develop a detailed understanding of how changes in brain dopamine signaling can modulate immune function,” said Gopinath, an MBI Gator NeuroScholar alumnus and a UF neuroscience research assistant professor. “These studies will help us develop novel therapies that can address both brain and body when brain dopamine signaling has gone awry,”
In all, the Karen Toffler Charitable Trust presented awards to 13 researchers from applicants across 22 universities and organizations.
“Backing early-career investigators is more vital than ever, and we look forward to watching them flourish,” said Rebecca Bartoli, the Toffler Trust’s executive director.