The Landmark Project

The Landmark Project is a large, public-private partnership for the discovery of disease modifying drug targets and predictive biomarkers for human brain disease, with a primary focus on Parkinson’s disease. Using the latest single-cell and multiomic technologies, Landmark will profile a minimum 50 million single brain cells across multiple brain regions from 400 post-mortem brain donors. The scientific basis for the research project was published in Nature Genetics in January 2025 (link here to the paper) and was funded by the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC). Uniquely, each brain tissue sample and patient-matched CSF will be profiled using genome-wide proteomics and metabolomics, as well as quantitative and digitized neuropathological examination. The project will establish a globally unique dataset for molecular causal inference. In recognition of this, Landmark has received extensive funding from multiple global Pharma including UCB, Roche, GSK, Esia and Novartis. Landmark has also received substantial charitable funding from Parkinson’s UK, The Gatsby Foundation and ASAP.

Why it is important:

A unique feature of the programme is the integration of multiomic data with quantitative neuropathology for causal inference.

How it will benefit patients/people:

Landmark has the potential to rapidly accelerate drug development in Parkinson’s disease and human brain disease more generally by the identification of genetically anchored disease modifying drug targets, and molecular biomarkers which are predictive of drug response.

PhD students:

• Wiemann, Liv A
• Rahbar, Parisa
• Gregorovicsova, Katarina

Post doctoral research associates

• Dr Alex Haglund
• Dr Maria Otero Jimenez

Data Manager:

• Enoch Newman

Research Technician:

• Ko, Jeong Hun

Project Manager:

• Saadia Rahman