Parkinsons disease (PD) is the second most common and fastest growing neurodegenerative disorder, with approximately 60,000 Americans diagnosed annually.

PD symptoms are not limited to motor dysfunction and more than 50% of patients who develop PD often have a history of bowel complaints affecting

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nearly all parts of the gastrointestinal (GI) system.

These SI symptoms often precede the onset of motor symptoms, indicating that GI dysfunction may be an early manifestation of the disease and the gut may be an unexplored diagnostic and/or therapeutic target.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to establish a Gut Brain Parkinson's Diesase Consortium (GBPDC) The Data Coordinating Center (DCC) of the GBPDC will coordinate collaboration among the Gastroenterology Neurology Research Centers (GNRCs, as described in the companion FOA, RFA-DK-22-036), enrollment of subjects into the study, submission of data and other biological samples to central repositories, processing of biospeciments, submission of clinical, cellular and molecular data to central databases, and data analysis.

The DCC will manage the operations of the GBPDC Steering Committee and other operational committees and provide the infrastructure for the efficient design and conduct of multicenter clinical studies and establishe a repostiory of patient samples that may be used for ancillary studies of etiology and pathogenesis.

The DCC will also coordinate the development of pilot projects for rapid follow-up of emerging findings by members of the GBPDC.