The grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke include $3.3 million to study Parkinson's and $594,000 for research related to frontotemporal dementia, a disease that is similar to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Both grants will support a lab led by Rita Cowell, PhD, of the Department of Neuroscience in Southern Research's Drug Discovery Division.

For Parkinson's, the grant will advance its research on a molecule that may keep brain cells alive. The second grant will support exploratory research about how neurons stop functioning in frontotemporal dementia and ALS.