Parkinson’s disease affects more than 10 million people worldwide and is considered an endemic condition. As populations continue to age, that number is expected to more than double by 2050. Despite its growing impact, there is currently no cure and no widely used screening method that can detect the disease early, before it causes significant and often irreversible brain damage.

New Study Points Toward Earlier Diagnosis

The findings were published in the journal npj Parkinson’s Disease by a research team from Chalmers University of Technology and Oslo University Hospital in Norway. The study describes major progress toward identifying Parkinson’s during its earliest phase, well before classic movement-related symptoms appear.

“By the time the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease appear, 50 — 80 per cent of the relevant brain cells are often already damaged or gone. The study is an important step towards facilitating early identification of the disease and counteracting its progression before it has gone this far,” says Danish Anwer, a doctoral student at the Department of Life Sciences at Chalmers and the study’s first author.

A Long and Overlooked Early Phase

Parkinson’s disease develops slowly. In many patients, the early phase can last up to 20 years before noticeable motor symptoms fully emerge. During this time, changes are already occurring inside cells.

The researchers focused on two biological processes believed to play a role at this early stage. One is DNA damage repair, the system cells use to detect and fix genetic damage. The other is the cellular stress response, a protective reaction that helps cells survive by shifting energy away from routine tasks and toward repair and defense.

Machine Learning Reveals a Unique Pattern

Using machine learning and other advanced analytical methods, the team identified a distinct pattern of gene activity related to DNA repair and stress response. This pattern appeared only in people in the early phase of Parkinson’s disease. It was not seen in healthy individuals or in patients who had already developed motor symptoms.

“This means that we have found an important window of opportunity in which the disease can be detected before motor symptoms caused by nerve damage in the brain appear. The fact that these patterns only show at an early stage and are no longer activated when the disease has progressed further also makes it interesting to focus on the mechanisms to find future treatments,” says Annikka Polster, Assistant Professor at the Department of Life Sciences at Chalmers, who led the study.

Why Blood-Based Testing Matters

Scientists around the world have been searching for reliable early indicators of Parkinson’s disease, including markers found through brain imaging and spinal fluid analysis. However, none of these approaches has yet led to a validated screening test suitable for widespread use before symptoms begin.

“In our study, we highlighted biomarkers that likely reflect some of the early biology of the disease and showed they can be measured in blood. This paves the way for broad screening tests via blood samples: a cost-effective, easily accessible method,” says Polster.

Blood Tests Could Reach Healthcare Within Years

The next phase of the research will focus on understanding exactly how these early biological mechanisms work and on developing tools that make them easier to detect.

The researchers estimate that within five years, blood tests designed to identify Parkinson’s disease at an early stage could begin to be tested in healthcare systems. Over the longer term, the findings may also support the development of treatments aimed at slowing or preventing the disease.

“If we can study the mechanisms as they happen, it could provide important keys to understanding how they can be stopped and which drugs might be effective. This may involve new drugs, but also drug repurposing, where we can use drugs developed for diseases other than Parkinson’s because the same gene activities or mechanisms are active,” says Polster.

More About the Scientific Article

The study Longitudinal assessment of DNA repair signature trajectory in prodromal versus established Parkinson’s disease has been published in npj Parkinson’s Disease. The authors are Danish Anwer, Nicola Pietro Montaldo, Elva Maria Novoa-del-Toro, Diana Domanska, Hilde Loge Nilsen and Annikka Polster. The researchers work at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and Oslo University Hospital, Norway.

The research has been funded by Chalmers Health Engineering Area of Advance, Sweden, the Michael J Fox Foundation, the Research Council of Norway, NAISS (National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden) and the Swedish Research Council.

More About Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that interferes with the brain’s ability to control movement. It progresses slowly and most often begins after the age of 55 — 60. Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, after Alzheimer’s disease. More than 10 million people have been diagnosed globally, and that number is projected to more than double by 2050.

Sources: The Swedish Parkinson’s Association, The BMJ, global projection study, 2024

Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms and Progression

Early symptoms

• REM sleep behavior disorder: The person acts out dreams during REM sleep, often with movements or sounds.
• Reduced sense of smell
• Constipation
• Depression
• Anxiety

Motor symptoms later in the disease

• Slow movements
• Rigidity and instability
• Tremors
• Involuntary muscle contractions

Quantum technology is widely expected to reshape major areas of society. Potential applications include drug discovery, artificial intelligence, logistics optimization, and secure communications. Despite this promise, serious technical barriers still stand in the way of real world use. One of the most difficult challenges is maintaining and controlling the delicate quantum states that make these systems work.

Why Quantum Computers Must Be Near Absolute Zero

Quantum computers built with superconducting circuits must be cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (around — 273 °C). At these temperatures, materials become superconducting, allowing electrons to move without resistance. Only under these extreme conditions can stable quantum states form inside qubits, the basic units of quantum information.

These quantum states are extremely sensitive. Small changes in temperature, electromagnetic interference, or background noise can quickly erase stored information. This sensitivity makes quantum systems difficult to operate and even harder to expand.

As researchers attempt to scale up quantum computers to solve practical problems, heat and noise become harder to control. Larger and more complex systems create more opportunities for unwanted energy to spread and disrupt fragile quantum states.

“Many quantum devices are ultimately limited by how energy is transported and dissipated. Understanding these pathways and being able to measure them allows us to design quantum devices in which heat flows are predictable, controllable and even useful,” says Simon Sundelin, doctoral student of quantum technology at Chalmers University of Technology and the study’s lead author.

Using Noise as a Cooling Tool

In a study published in Nature Communications, the Chalmers team describes a fundamentally different kind of quantum refrigerator. Instead of trying to eliminate noise, the system uses it as the driving force behind cooling.

“Physicists have long speculated about a phenomenon called Brownian refrigeration; the idea that random thermal fluctuations could be harnessed to produce a cooling effect. Our work represents the closest realisation of this concept to date,” says Simone Gasparinetti, associate professor at Chalmers and senior author of the study.

At the core of the refrigerator is a superconducting artificial molecule created in Chalmers’ nanofabrication laboratory. It behaves much like a natural molecule, but instead of atoms, it is built from tiny superconducting electrical circuits.

The artificial molecule is connected to multiple microwave channels. By adding carefully controlled microwave noise in the form of random signal fluctuations within a narrow frequency range, the researchers can guide how heat and energy move through the system with remarkable precision.

“The two microwave channels serve as hot and cold reservoirs, but the key point is that they are only effectively connected when we inject controlled noise through a third port. This injected noise enables and drives heat transport between the reservoirs via the artificial molecule. We were able to measure extremely small heat currents, down to powers in the order of attowatts, or 10-18 watt. If such a small heat flow were used to warm a drop of water, it would take the age of the universe to see its temperature rise one degree Celsius,” explains Sundelin.

New Paths Toward Scalable Quantum Technology

By carefully adjusting reservoir temperatures and tracking minuscule heat flows, the quantum refrigerator can operate in multiple ways. Depending on conditions, it can function as a refrigerator, act as a heat engine, or amplify thermal transport.

This level of control is especially important in larger quantum systems, where heat is produced locally during qubit operation and measurement. Managing that heat directly inside quantum circuits could improve stability and performance in ways conventional cooling systems cannot.

“We see this as an important step towards controlling heat directly inside quantum circuits, at a scale that conventional cooling systems can’t reach. Being able to remove or redirect heat at this tiny scale opens the door to more reliable and robust quantum technologies,” says Aamir Ali, a researcher in quantum technology at Chalmers and co-author of the study.

More Information

The study Quantum refrigeration powered by noise in a superconducting circuit was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The authors are Simon Sundelin, Mohammed Ali Aamir, Vyom Manish Kulkarni, Claudia Castillo-Moreno, and Simone Gasparinetti from the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers University of Technology.

The quantum refrigerator was fabricated at the Nanofabrication Laboratory, Myfab, at Chalmers University of Technology.

Funding for the research was provided by the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation through the Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology (WACQT), the European Research Council, and the European Union.