UC gets $5.5M for Parkinson’s research

CINCINNATI (AP) — University of Cincinnati’s Neuroscience Institute received a $5.5 million gift to research treatments and potential cures for Parkinson’s disease, the school announced Saturday.

The funds will help recruit clinicians and researchers to expand the university’s Parkinson’s program, which already has garnered more than $5 million in investments in the past five years, school officials said.

The gift is from James Gardner, a retired executive at Cincinnati-based Cintas Corp., and his wife, Joan, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s several years ago.

“We think it’s important to come up with a cure for the disease, but also to do something to arrest the progression and research more medications,” James Gardner said.

The center, named the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, will be housed within the Neuroscience Institute.